Molecular cloning and characterization of alternatively spliced mRNA isoforms from psoriatic skin encoding a novel member of the S100 family

SPECIFIC AIMSPsoriasis is a chronic, inflammatory disease of widespread occurrence, characterized by increased proliferation and altered differentiation of keratinocytes, possibly caused by altered gene expression. To identify and clone psoriasis-associated genes, we compared gene expression in normal and psoriatic skin using the differential-display reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis.PRINCIPAL FINDINGS1. Identification of a novel human S100 cDNABy differential-display RT-PCR analysis, a fragment of 650 bp (clone 110) was detected, which was highly up-regulated in lesional skin. Sequence analysis revealed homology to a noncoding cDNA (NICE-2). By using clone 110 as a probe for Northern blot hybridization, a transcript of ∼4.4 kb was detected in RNA of psoriatic skin (Fig. 1⤻ A). Multiple genomic analyses predicted a particular coding region ∼4 kb upstream of clone 110 consisting of two exons (clone RP1-128L15, acc. no. AL591704). To prove if clone 110 and the open reading fr...