Increased chemotactic and mitogenic response of psoriatic fibroblasts to platelet-derived growth factor.

The effect of increasing doses from 1.25 to 10 ng/ml of PDGF was tested for chemotactic and mitogenic activity on psoriatic fibroblasts cultured from involved and uninvolved skin of five patients compared to normal fibroblasts from five matched control subjects. The chemotactic response of psoriatic fibroblasts from involved skin (p less than 0.05) and uninvolved skin (p less than 0.005) is significantly enhanced compared to normal fibroblasts. Similarly, PDGF in the presence of platelet poor human plasma is a more potent mitogenic agent in psoriatic fibroblasts than in normal fibroblasts. This increased sensitivity of psoriatic fibroblasts to PDGF may be related to the inflammatory and vascularization processes involved in psoriatic dermis.