Correlation between nuclear expression of heat shock protein 90 in dermis and glucocorticoid resistance in bullous dermatosis.

BACKGROUND: bullous dermatosis is a group of skin diseases that occur on the skin and mucous membrane, with blister and bulla as basic damage, mainly including pemphigus and bullous pemphigoid. Glucocorticoid (GC) is still the preferred drug for its treatment, but some patients respond poorly to GC and even develop glucocorticoid resistance (GCR). However, at present about the disease the understanding of the mechanisms for GCR is limited.

OBJECTIVE: This study attempted to investigate the molecular mechanism of GCR in bullous dermatosis with heat shock proteins 90 (HSP90) and glucocorticoid receptor (GR) as molecular targets.

METHODS: In this study, flow cytometry was used to measure and analyze the expression of HSP90 and GR in the lesions of patients with glucocorticoid-resistant bullosa dermatosis. Immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence were used to observe the expression distribution and cell localization of HSP90 and GR.

RESULTS: The expression of HSP90 in skin lesions of GCR group was significantly higher than that of glucocorticoid-sensitive (GCS) group, while the expression level of GR was lower than that of GCS group. In the epidermis, the expression and distribution of HSP90 were not different between the GCR group and the GCS group. And in the dermis, HSP90 and GR were more likely to be expressed in the nucleus in the GCR group.

CONCLUSION: The overexpression and nuclear distribution of HSP90 may be related to the occurrence of GCR in patients with bullous dermatosis. And this correlation is more likely to occur in the dermis than in the epidermis.