Expression of Th17 cytokines in skin lesions of patients with psoriasis.

In order to investigate the role of Th17 cytokines in the pathogenesis of psoriasis, reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to detect the expression of IL-17, IL-23 (p19/p40), and IL-6 in skin lesions and non-lesions of the patients with psoriasis and skin tissues of normal subjects. The results showed that the mRNA expression levels of IL-17, IL-23p19, IL-23p40 and IL-6 in psoriasis lesion were significantly higher than those of non-lesions (1.231 +/- 0.843 vs 1.003 +/- 0.044, 1.166 +/- 0.142 vs 0.765 +/- 0.133, 1.125 +/- 0.104 vs 0.730 +/- 0.103, 1.186 +/- 0.222 vs 0.976 +/- 0.122, respectively, all P < 0.05). Meanwhile, The expression levels of IL-17 mRNA, IL-23p19 mRNA, IL-23p40 mRNA and IL-6 mRNA were higher in non-lesions than those in normal skin tissues (1.003 +/- 0.044 vs 0.620 +/- 0.104, 0.765 +/- 0.133 vs 0.584 +/- 0.078, 0.730 +/- 0.103 vs 0.000 +/- 0.000, 0.976 +/- 0.122 vs 0.656 +/- 0.121, respectively, all P < 0.05). The overexpression of Th17 cytokines in the skin lesions of patients with psoriasis may indicate that Th17 cytokines play a very important role in the immunopathogenesis of psoriasis.