In order to explore the possible role of CC chemokine ligand 20 (CCL20) and its receptor CC chemokine receptor 6 (CCR6) in the pathogenesis of psoriasis, the expression levels of mRNA of them in psoriatic lesions were investigated. The skin biopsies were collected from skin lesions in 35 cases of psoriasis vulgaris and 18 normal controls. RT-PCR was used to semi-quantitatively analyze the mRNA expression of CCL20 and CCR6 in the psoriatic lesions and the normal skin tissues. The results showed that the mRNA of CCL20 and CCR6 was present in every specimen. The expression levels of CCL20 mRNA in skin lesions were 1.1397±0.0521, which were greatly higher than those in normal controls (0.8681±0.0308) (P<0.001). The expression levels of CCR6 mRNA in skin lesions were 1.1103±0.0538, significantly higher than in the controls (0.9131±0.0433,P<0.001). These findings indicate that up-regulated expression of CCL20 and CCR6 mRNA might be related to the pathogenesis of psoriasis.
In order to investigate the immunoactivity ofLycium Barbarum glycopeptide (LBG), the routinely prepared murine splenic lymphocyte suspension was separately added into the samples with different concentrations (500, 100, 10, 1 μg/ml) of LBG as LBG groups. Blank control group in the absence ofLycium Barbarum glycopeptide or ConA and positive control group in the presence of 0.5 ml Cona but in the absence of LBG were created, 0.5 ml LBG samples with different concentrations in combination with 0.5 ml ConA (10 μg/ml) into each well to observe the synergic effects of LBG and ConA as LBG+ConA groups. After incubation for 72 h at 37 °C, the samples were analyzed by CFSE-labeled cells combined with flow cytometry, and MTT. Flow cytometry revealed that both LBG could enhance the murine splenic lymphocyte proliferative reaction. Combined use of LBG and ConA had synergic effects. MTT demonstrated that sample A could obviously promote the murine splenic lymphocyte proliferative reaction as compared with control group (P<0.01), while sample B could also enhance the lymphocyte proliferation at a high dose. In combination with ConA, sample A had synergic effects at high dose, while sample B showed obviously synergic effects (P<0.05). It was concluded that both samples (A and B) had strong immunocompetence.