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Researchers in Japan have found that persistent unhealed skin disease might adversely affect viscus, causing systemic cardiovascular disease and metabolic abnormalities.
Previous studies showed that psoriasis patients are more likely to develop miocardial infarction and have shorter average life span than healthy people. However, the mechanism was not known. A research group led by Yamanaka Keiichi, associate professor in Mie University, conjectured that cytokines produced by inflammatory parts of skin might have an effect on immune system.
Cytokines are cell signaling molecules that aid cell to cell communication in immune responses and stimulate the movement of cells towards sites of inflammation, infection and trauma.
To verify this conjecture, the researchers studied on laboratory rats developing skin inflammatory disease by means of gene manipulation, which were found to show symptoms including arteriosclerosis, cardiomegaly, cardiovascular disorder and dyslipidosis under continuous observation.
The researchers discovered that the immflammtory parts of skin produced excess of interleukin 1 (IL-1), a kind of cytokines. They thought persistent release of IL-1 caused the above mentioned symptoms. After injection of anti-IL-1 antibody into the lab rats, their symptoms improved.
"These findings may explain the morbid association of arteriosclerosis, heart involvement, amyloidosis and cachexia in severe systemic skin diseases and systemic autoinflammatory diseases, and support the value of anti-IL-1 therapy for systemic inflammatory diseases," said the researchers in a report published recently.
