O. De Pità, A. Frezzolini, A. Cianetti, G. De Sanctis, L. Fontana, V. Bottari
DOI: 10.1080/000155599750011354

Several published studies suggest the involvement of immune and inflammatory factors in psoriasis. We recently demonstrated that the number of circulating ICAM-1+ lymphocytes and the levels β2-microglobulin are useful parameters in monitoring the activity of the disease. In this study we investigated serum levels of SCCr-Ag in 24 patients with psoriasis in order to determine whether this antigen is a marker of disease activity. Our results demonstrated high serum levels of SCCr-Ag, IL-2, sIL-2R, sCD4, sCD8, sICAM-1 and β2-microglobulin in the acute phase of psoriasis. Furthermore, we found a positive correlation of SCC with TBSA, PASI score, sICAM-1 and β2-microglobulin. These data demonstrate that serum levels of SCCr-Ag depend on the severity of the disease and correlate with both immunological and inflammatory markers of disease activity. We suggest that expression of SCCr-Ag may be induced by cytokines in the microenvironment of psoriatic lesions, suggesting that SCC-Ag may play a role in the inflammatory process.