Abstract
Background: Little information is known about telomerase expression in the chronic benign hyperproliferative skin disease, psoriasis. Further studies are still required to investigate its usefulness as a biomarker of this skin disorder. Aim: To investigate the expression of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) in psoriatic lesional skin and its relation to disease severity. Methods: The levels of hTERT-mRNA were quantified using real time RT-PCR in lesional versus nonlesional skin specimens from 24 psoriatic patients. Results: The expression of hTERT was detected in 16 psoriatic lesional specimens (66.7%), but in none of the normal skin. There was no relation between hTERT expression level and age of the patient or the duration of the disease. Among hTERT-positive patients, a significant positive correlation was observed between hTERT-mRNA levels and both the Psoriasis Area-and-Severity Index (PASI) and scaling scores (p = 0.012 & p = 0.006, respectively). Conclusion: Telomerase mRNA is detectable in lesional skin of most psoriatic patients and correlates with the severity of the disease and the rate of epidermal proliferation.