Reproducible Novel Transcriptional Differences Between Psoriatic Lesional and Non-Lesional Skin Show Increased Inflammation and Metabolism.

Background: Psoriasis is a common but complex chronic inflammatory skin Disease. Array-based studies can help identify therapeutic targets. Objective: To reproducibly assess single-gene transcriptional changes in psoriatic skin. Methods: We evaluated 210 top candidate genes from a first psoriasis study group (population 1), and then confirmed differential expression in a second independent psoriasis study group (population 2). Results: One hundred and thirty-eight differentially expressed genes were replicated in the 2 studies, of which 57 have not previously been reported as associated with psoriasis.This is significantly greater than the 10 expected false positives. Lesional skin vs uninvolved areas showed inflammatory and cell regulation changes. Conclusion: Previously undescribed psoriasis-associated genes revealed in this study may provide potential future targets for development and assessment of novel therapeutic agents for psoriasis.