ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Giornale Italiano di Dermatologia e Venereologia 2004 June;139(3):165-70

Copyright © 2004 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English, Italian

Anticardiolipin antibodies expression in psoriasis

Campanati A. ¹, Simonetti O. ¹, Silvestri B. ¹, Mannello B. ², Ferretti G. ³, Bartocci C. ², Montroni M. ², Offidani A. ¹

¹ Institute of Dermatology, University of Ancona, Ancona, Italy 2 Institute of Immunology, University of Ancona, Ancona, Italy 3 Institute of Biochemistry, University of Ancona, Ancona, Italy

Aim. Psoriasis is a chronic dermatosis associated with an increased risk of atherosclerosis, although pathogenetic mechanisms implicated in the development of this status are not completely clarified. LDL of psoriatic patients show a higher susceptibility to in vitro peroxidation, with an increase of oxidized modified low density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) expression in vivo. Oxidative modifications of LDL render them immunogenic, eliciting the expression of both specific anti-ox-LDL and b2GP1 dependent anticardiolipin antibodies (aCL), as a consequence of structural similarities between ox-LDL and anionic phospholipid-b2GP1 complex, the antigenic target of aCL. Since several lines of investigation have demonstrated that aCL are directly implicated in the earlier phases of atherosclerosis, representing therefore a useful marker in predicting atherosclerotic risk, we have evaluated the aCL serum level in psoriatic patients, compared to a control group, and its relationship with disease activity.
Methods. Sixty-nine patients with psoriasis and 58 matched control subjects were investigated. aCL (IgM and IgG) were detected by an immunoenzimatic assay in both patients’ and controls’ sera.
Results. Thirty percent of the patients and 6% of the controls had aCL levels higher than the cut-off point (p<0.0008); in patients, aCL mean levels were found to be significantly increased, in comparison with the control group, for both IgM (p<0.0001) and IgG (p<0.0003), and these levels were found to be related with PASI score, for both IgM (p<0.0001) and IgG (p<0.0001).
Conclusion. Our data confirm the atherosclerotic diathesis in psoriatics and identify one of the factors involved in promoting atherogenesis in these patients.