Desmosomes in psoriases

ABSTRACT

Two male psoriatic patients, aged between 22 and 27 years and one healthy control, aged 26 years, were studied. Skin biopsies were taken from psoriatic plaques on the right forearms for ultrastructural study of the epidermal desmosomes in an attempt to find a role for this important structure in the psoriatic abnormality. In this regard, four important changes were found in this study Marked reduction and endocytosis of desmosomes, presence of cytoplasmic microvilli and widening of the intercellular spaces. The pathogenetic role of these changes were discussed