Expression And Role Of CGRP In Patients With Psoriasis Vulgaris

Objective:The main purpose of this research was discussing the effects on Calcitonin Gene-related Peptide(CGRP) in the pathogenesis of psoriasis vulgaris preliminarily, by detecting the expression of CGRP in the lesions and CGRP, Anandamide(AEA), Nerve Growth Factor(NGF) in the plasma of psoriasis vulgaris patients. In addition, the changes of the migrating and adhesive ability, along with the ability of releasing IL-6 and IFN-y of T-lymphocytes after disposed by CGRP were also observed.Methods:1. Immunohistochemical method was applied to detect the expres-sion of CGRP in skin specimens of 12 cases including both psoriasis vulgaris patients and normal controls. The relative expressing amount of CGRP in the positive samples was reflected by its positive target integral light density values, which were measured by the automatic analyzing program of Motic Med 6.0 digital medical image analysis system.2. A radioimmunoassay technique was used to detect the level of CGRP in plasma of 25 cases of patients with psoriasis vulgaris and normal controls, recording the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index(PASI) score of the patients, then analyzing the relationship between the score and the protein expression of CGRP in peripheral blood.3. The level of NGF in psoriasis patients'plasma was detected by ELISA.4. The level of AEA in psoriasis patients'plasma was analyzed by LC-MS.5. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PMBC) of patients with psoriasis vulgaris were isolated with density gradient centrifugation and then T cells were purified by CD3+ magnetic beads from the PMBCs. Furthermore, with the T lymphocytes cultured with escalating-doses CGRP, We observed the changes of their adhesive and migrating ability carefully. Meanwhile, the expression level of IL-6 and IFN-y in the Cell supernatant fluid of experimental groups were tested by means of ELISA.Results:1. The respective average values measured by immunohistochemical positive expressive gray scan of the specimens for experimental and control groups were 212.9±23.8 and 144.6±17.6, indicating that the expression level of patients with psoriasis vulgaris was significantly higher than that of the healthy ones(P<0.05).2. The average value of CGRP in plasma was 49.43±4.59pg/mL of experimental group and 34.97±4.41pg/mL of control group. We could clearly see that the expression of CGRP in plasma was much higher in patients with psoriasis vulgar is(P<0.05), what's more, this expression level was positively-related with the PASI score(P<0.05).3. The respective average values of AEA in plasma of experimental and control groups were 0.15±0.01ng/mL and 0.11±0.01ng/mL, indicating that the expression level of AEA in plasma of experimental group was significantly higher than that of control group(P<0.05). However, the expression level of NGF in plasma has no significantly difference between these two groups.4. CGRP can enhance the adhesive and migrating ability of T lymphocytes in a concentration-dependent manner. In the mean time, its ability of releasing IL-6 can also be increased (P<0.01), but without effects on IFN-γ. Conclusion:The results of higher expression level of CGRP protein in patients with psoriasis vulgaris and its positive relationship with this disease, indicate that CGRP may play a very important role in the occurrence and development of psoriasis, and the increases of CGRP in both plasma and skin lesion are probably related to the release of AEA, owing to the function of CGRP enhancing the adhesive and migrating ability of T lymphocytes, promoting the release of IL-6 as well.