Effect of Retinoic Acid on Platelet-Derived Growth Factor (PDGF) Bioactivity and Type-B PDGF Receptors in Normal and Psoriatic Human Fibroblasts

Psoriasis is a common skin disease in which retinoids have beneficial effects. It offers a model for the study of benign hyperproliferation with abnormal differentiation. The dermis has a prominent role in the appearance of epidermal lesions. It is therefore of interest to study the factors that modulate dermal cell proliferation. In this study, the role of retinoids in modulating platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) bioactivity was studied in normal (six subjects) and psoriatic fibroblasts from involved and uninvolved tissues (six patients). Retinoic acid treatment (for 4 d at 10(-6) M) of psoriatic fibroblasts significantly increased the chemotactic effect of PDGF in these cells (p < 0.01 and p < 0.05, respectively, in involved and uninvolved skin at 20 ng/ml of platelet-derived growth factor as measured in a modified Boyden Chamber Assay). In the same way, retinoic acid treatment of psoriatic fibroblasts increased the mitogenicity of platelet-derived growth factor in these cells. Retinoic acid treatment has no significant effect on the mitogenic and chemotactic activity of PDGF in normal fibroblasts. The binding of the homodimer BB PDGF to its type-B receptor, which mediates the mitogenic and chemotactic effect of PDGF, was not modified by retinoic acid treatment either in psoriatic and/or normal fibroblasts. These results suggest that retinoic acid may modulate the PDGF bioactivity in psoriatic fibroblasts not by affecting the binding of this ligand to these cells but by influencing a post-receptor event.