Monocyte and neutrophil chemotaxis in psoriasis: Relation to the clinical status and the type of psoriasis

Abstract

Chemotactic activity of purified monocytes and polymorphonuclear leukocytes was studied in fifty patients with psoriasis vulgaris and in forty-five healthy individuals by an objective in vitro assay with the use of a 51Cr-labeling technic. Both monocytes and polymorphonuclear leukocytes showed a statistically significant increase in chemotactic response, which was positively correlated with disease activity but not with the extent of the cutaneous lesions. The chemotactic activity of monocytes correlated with that of polymorphonuclear leukocytes in the same patients. Exacerbation of psoriasis was preceded by a rapid increase of polymorphonuclear leukocyte chemotaxis, and a decline of chemotaxis occurred during clinical improvement. The psoriatic leukocytes were 22% more sensitive than normal leukocytes to leukotriene B4 than to N-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine. Psoriatic plasma showed chemotaxis-enhancing properties, but only in patients with widespread cutaneous lesions. Additionally, monocyte and polymorphonuclear leukocyte chemotaxis was studied in twenty patients with pustular psoriasis and in fifteen patients with psoriatic arthritis. The chemotactic profiles in pustular psoriasis were different from those in psoriasis vulgaris. Patients with pustular psoriasis had significantly higher polymorphonuclear leukocyte chemotaxis than patients with psoriasis vulgaris, but the chemotactic activity of monocytes was normal. The presence of seronegative arthritis had no influence on chemotactic activity of psoriatic leukocytes.