ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
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Year : 2013 | Volume
: 33
| Issue : 2 | Page : 46-50 |
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The expression pattern of antiapoptotic protein c-FLIP in psoriatic epidermis
Adel A Imam, Al Hasan M El-Hefnawy, Shereen B El-Sayed, Sarah H Ibrahim
Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt
Correspondence Address:
Al Hasan M El-Hefnawy Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo Egypt
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/1110-6530.123929
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Background
Psoriasis is a chronic, relapsing, inflammatory, and hyperproliferative disease. The pathological changes affecting skin in psoriasis are mainly driven by abnormal differentiation secondary to activation of T cells. Keratinocytes may undergo apoptosis by loss of cell-cell contact after crosslinking of the FAS (CD95) molecule. The epidermal hyperplasia in psoriasis has been implicated to be a result of suppression of apoptosis. A key inhibitor of death receptor signaling is cellular FLICE inhibitory protein (c-FLIP), which interacts with FAS-associated death domain protein (FADD) and procaspase-8 preventing it from binding to caspase-8, thereby inhibiting the initiation of the apoptotic cascade.
Aim of work
This study was designed to investigate the expression pattern of antiapoptotic molecule c-FLIP in psoriasis vulgaris patients.
Materials and methods
Twenty psoriasis vulgaris patients were enrolled in this study. All patients were subjected to assessment of the degree of severity using PASI score. A 2-mm punch biopsy was taken from each patient from lesional and nonlesional areas for evaluation of c-FLIP mRNA gene expression using RT-PCR.
Results
We found that there was a direct significant relationship between psoriasis and c-FLIP protein levels measured. The study also showed that the discrimination of the degree of severity of psoriasis using psoriatic skin c-FLIP mRNA level can be reliable, with 100% sensitivity, 81.2% specificity, and 85% accuracy.
Conclusion
Increased levels of c-FLIP might induce upregulation of keratinocyte proliferation and downregulation of the apoptotic signaling pathway in psoriatic epidermis. c-FLIP might be a potential new target for preventing keratinocyte proliferation in psoriasis in the future. |
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