Tissue-engineered human psoriatic skin supplemented with cytokines as an in vitro model to study plaque psoriasis

Aim: Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease. To study its complex etiology, a psoriatic skin substitute model supplemented with a cytokine cocktail has been used. Materials & methods: Reconstructed psoriatic skin substitutes were supplemented with a cocktail of four cytokines: TNF-alpha, IL-1 alpha, IL-6 and IL-17A, to monitor their impact on gene expression by DNA microarray. Results: Gene profiling analyses identified several deregulated genes reported as being also deregulated in psoriasis skin in vivo (S100A12, IL-8, DEFB4A and KYNU). The expression of those genes was dramatically increased compared with basal levels of controls (p < 0.005 to < 0.05). Conclusion: Psoriatic substitutes supplemented with a cocktail of TNF-alpha, IL-1 alpha, IL-6 and IL-17A showed similar transcriptome alterations to those found in psoriasis.