Nucleocytoplasmic expression of autophagy-related protein 7 in psoriasis

Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of autophagy-related protein 7 (Atg7) in psoriasis. Background Despite psoriasis being a common skin disorder, the exact pathogenic mechanism of psoriasis is still not fully understood. Abnormal autophagy is now established to be associated with pathogenesis of some skin disorders. Atg7 plays a central role in the machinery of the autophagy. Materials and methods This prospective case-control study included 30 patients with chronic plaque psoriasis, either lesional or perilesional, and 20 age-matched and sex-matched apparently normal participants as a control group. All cases were immunohistochemically stained for Atg7 antibody. Results There was a significant difference among the three studied groups regarding epidermal topographic distribution of Atg7 (P Conclusion Nucleocytoplasmic expression of Atg7 in psoriatic skin could be incriminated in pathogenesis of psoriasis.