To investigate the role of Interleukin-17 (IL-17), Interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), and macrophage inflammatory protein-3 alpha (MIP-3α) in the pathogenesis of psoriasis, reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to semi-quantitatively analyze the mRNA expression of IL-17, IFN-γ, and MIP-3α in 31 psoriatic lesions and 16 normal skin tissues. The results showed that the mRNA of the three cytokines was present in all specimens. And the expression level of IL-17 mRNA in skin lesions was 1.1416±0.0591, which was significantly higher than that in normal controls (0.8788±0.0344,P<0.001). The expression levels of IFN-γ mRNA were 1.1142±0.0561 and 0.9050±0.263, respectively, with significant difference (P<0.001). And the expression levels of MIP-3α mRNA in psoriatic lesions was 1.1397±0.0521, which was markedly higher than that in normal controls (0.8681±0.0308,P<0.001). These findings indicate that up-regulated expression of IL-17, IFN-γ, and MIP-3α might be involved in the pathogenesis of psoriasis.
The independent risk factors to predict mortality of critical severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) were investigated. One hundred and two patients diagnosed with critical SARS were admitted to hospitals of Shanxi Province, from March 7, 2003 to June 4, 2003. The patients were prospectively studied after admission to access their short term outcomes and the risk factors associated with adverse outcomes, defined as death. All the demographic and clinical characteristics were studied and univariate and multivariate Logistic regression were employed to access the risk factors. The results showed that of the 102 cases, 23 patients died, with a crude mortality rate of 22.5%. Multivariate Logistic regression revealed that age above 50 [odds ratio (OR) 1. 10, 95% confidence internal (CI) 1.03 to 1.16,P=0.004], lymphopenia at early stage (OR 14.62, 95% CI 1.78 to 11.97,P=0.01) were independently associated with mortality. On the other side, psychotherapy (OR 0.01, 95% CI 0.00 to 0.06,P<0.001) was independently associated with aliveness. It was concluded that critical SARS is a new disease entity that carries significant mortality and morbidity. Specific clinical and laboratory parameters predicting unfavorable and favorable outcomes have been identified.