Archive for January, 2011
Posted by James
INTRODUCTION
Periumbilical perforating pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PPPXE), first described by Hicks et al. in 1979, is a rare acquired disorder of connective tissue. This localized cutaneous disorder characteristically presents as a well-defined, hyperpigmented periumbilical plaque in multiparous, obese, black women. It is suggested that repeated traumas of pregnancy, obesity, or abdominal surgery promote localized degeneration of elastic fibers. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by James
In this study, we demonstrated that the percentage of CLA+ T cells was significantly higher in peripheral blood of psoriatic patients than in normal control subjects. Previous studies have reported that CLA was expressed by 10% to 20% of peripheral blood T cells in normal healthy adults and the differences of the percentage of CLA+ T cells between psoriatic patients and normal control subjects were not significant. But we found that only 3.6% and 2.1% of peripheral blood T cells expressed CD3 / CLA and CD4 / CLA, respectively, in normal subjects but psoriatic patients had significantly greater percentages of CD3+CLA+ and CD4+CLA+ T cells (median 8.7% and 5.7%, respectively) than those of normal control subjects. Such differences between this study and previous studies may be due to the characteristics of the recruited patients such as age, sex, severity of psoriasis, duration of the disease, previous treatment for psoriasis, number of patients and racial difference. Our data suggests that a certain portion of skin-homing CLA+ T cells in peripheral blood may be psoriasis-specific T cells especially in patients with very severe psoriasis. In one report, acute stage of psoriasis less than 6 weeks, CLA+ T cells were correlated with disease severity.
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Posted by James
The number of CLA+ T cells is significantly higher in peripheral blood of psoriatic patients than in normal control subjects
We first compared the number of CD3+CLA+, CD4+CLA+, and CD8+CLA+ T cells in peripheral blood of psoriatic patients with those of normal control subjects using FACS analysis. The percentages of CD3+CLA+, CD4+CLA+, and CD8~CLA+ T cells were significantly higher in psoriatic patients than in normal control subjects £<0.01.
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Posted by James
Patients
Eight patients (5 females, 3 males, mean age 42.5 years) with severe chronic plaque psoriasis were Antibodies and reagents for staining Primary unconjugated and fluorescein isothio- cyanate (FITC)-, phycoerythrin (PE)-, or biotin- conjugated monoclonal antibodies (mAbs)/reagents used in this study are as follows; anti-cutaneous lymphocyte antigen (CLA, Becton-Dickinson, Lincoln Park, NJ), anti-E-selectin (CD62E, R&D Systems, Minneapolis, MN), anti-CD3 (Dako, Kyoto, Japan), anti-CD4 (Dako) and anti-CD8 (Dako). Irrelevant monoclonal antibodies of the appropriate immunoglobulin isotype were used as negative controls. mAbs were titrated and diluted in staining buffer (5% FBS, IVGG, NAN3).
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Posted by James
INTRODUCTION
T cells are thought to play a critical role in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. The tissue-selective homing of T cells to psoriatic skin lesions is regulated primarily by interaction of T cell homing receptors with adhesion molecules on the endothelial cells. The molecules mediating the varied degrees of adhesion between leukocyte and endothelium include the small selectin family which mediates the very early transient adhesions as well as the rolling interactions. Among these, E-selectin is known to be up-regulated on the vascular endothelium of inflammatory skin lesions such as psoriasis. Cutaneous lymphocyte antigen (CLA) is expressed in a subset of circulating memory T cells and in the majority of skin-infiltrating T cells and is thought to mediate the homing of circulating skin-associated T cells to cutaneous inflammatory sites by interacting with endothelial cell ligand E-selectin. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by James
Lazarus et al reported the first case of pulmonary involvement in Sweet syndrome proven by the open lung biopsy in leukemia. Not only simple sterile pulmonary infiltration, but also several cases of bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome have been reported in association with Sweet syndrome. Most patients treated with systemic corticosteroid therapy have yielded a good response, but the prognosis can be variable according to what the underlying disease is and whether prompt corticos- teroidal therapy was started or not.
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Posted by James
Sweet syndrome may occur in the absence of other diseases as an idiopathic form, but is often associated with various diseases including malignancy, and mav be induced by several medications or pregnancy. Associated diseases are variable; cancers including both hematologic malignancies and solid tumors, infections involving the upper respiratory tract and gastrointestinal tract, inflammatory diseases such as Behcet disease, erythema nodosum, rheumatoid arthritis and sarcoidosis, and thyroid disease.
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