Abstract
BACKGROUND: Psoriasis is an immune-mediated chronic skin disease. Despite the low proportion of B cells in human blood, they play an important role in regulating the pathogenesis of psoriasis. Therefore, we investigated the role and clinical significance of B cells in psoriasis by conducting experiments. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty psoriasis patients and 30 healthy volunteers were selected as human subjects for skin biopsy collection and histological analysis, and EDTA anticoagulated blood was collected for flow cytometry and ELISA. The means of two independent samples were compared using an independent samples t-test, and p < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. RESULTS: Stained pathological sections from psoriasis patients revealed infiltration of a large number of cells in skin lesions. Flow cytometry and ELISA analysis revealed the following comparisons between psoriasis patients and healthy volunteers: significant upregulation of lymphocytes (p < 0.05); no significant difference in CD19+ B cells; significant difference in Bregs, CD19+ CD24+ CD38+ cells (p < 0.05); significant difference in memory B cells, CD19+ CD27+ CD38- cells (p < 0.01); significant difference in naive B cells, CD19+ CD27- CD38+ cells (p < 0.05); BAFF, IgD, and IL-4 serum levels were much higher in PsO patients than those in healthy volunteers (p < 0.05). However, no remarkable difference in IL-10 level (p > 0.05) was found. CONCLUSIONS: The levels of B cell populations as well as immune molecules including BAFF, IgD, and IL-4 are significantly associated with psoriasis. These findings may lead to further investigations into the role of B cells and their subsets in the pathogenesis of psoriasis.