The Presence and Clearance of Immune Complexes in the Untreated Generalised Psoriasis

Abstract

Psoriasis is a hyperproliferative inflammatory disease and 70% of patients develop a chronic plaque form of the disease. The pathogenesis of psoriasis is not known but evidence exists that changes in micro vascular occur. There are micro vascular abnormalities in the capillaries which display a multilayer basement membrane with fenestration. Study of involved synovium in psoriatic arthritis reveals endothelial cell swelling, thickening of the vessel walls and inflammatory cell infiltration. Investigation on expression of CD35 molecules that clear the immune complexes were carried out in this study. CD35 is single chain glycoprotein (MW160–240 kD) and is located on the long arm of the chromosome 1. FACScan was used as laser flow cytometer. Initially 40 blood samples from normal individuals, 35 untreated Lupus Erythematosus Systemic and 35 Rheumatoid arthritis patients were studied as controls for reference values of CD35, Circulating immune Complexes (CIC), Complement C3 & C4. Next 34 patients suffering from psoriasis were studied for, Circulating immune Complexes (CIC), Complement C3 & C4. Comparison of these results with those of reference values normal ranges showed significant increase of CIC (P<0.05) and decrease of CD35 (P<0.001). Where as, the complement component levels C3 (P>0.05) and C4(P>0.05) indicates werenot significantly altered. This study shows that the decrease in expression of CD35 on Red blood cells in psoriasis patients is more crucial than C3 and C4 levels. Thus decrease of CD35 molecule in psoriasis may cause increased levels of CIC in patients' sera and promotion of inflammatory responses.