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Urban particulate matters induce EGR-1 expression in keratinocytes which correlates with the severity of psoriasis

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Abstract

Background

Early growth response protein (Egr)-1 is a transcription factor important for cell growth and initiation of immune responses. It is significantly up-regulated in psoriatic skin.

Objective

We evaluated the differential expression of Egr-1 in skin lesions of plaque psoriasis and its correlation with the severity of psoriasis. We also used in vitro methods in normal keratinocytes to analyze if urban particulate matter influences Egr-1 expression.

Results

Egr-1 was significantly up-regulated in the psoriatic skin, specifically in the stratum basale. Its expression was positively correlated with the severity of psoriasis (ρ = 0.497, P = 0.013). It was also significantly up-regulated in keratinocytes with exposure to urban particulate matters under in vitro condition.

Conclusion

Up-regulated expression of Egr-1 in the epidermis suggests that it plays a role in psoriasis by accelerating epidermal cell replication, to which could be attributed by urban particulate matter.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (NRF-2019R1A2B5B01070162). Additionally, this work was supported by Korea University grant.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Dermatology, Korea University Ansan Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine, Ansan, Korea

    Tae Jun Park, Haneul Oh & Sang Wook Son

  2. Department of Dermatology, Gachon Gil Medical Center, Gachon University College of Medicine, Incheon, Korea

    Hee Joo Kim

  3. Department of Biomedical Sciences and Department of Dermatology, BK21 Graduate Program, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, 02841, Republic of Korea

    Min-Gyu Kim, Jaehyung Kim & Sang Wook Son

Authors
  1. Tae Jun Park
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  2. Haneul Oh
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  3. Min-Gyu Kim
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  4. Jaehyung Kim
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  5. Hee Joo Kim
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  6. Sang Wook Son
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Contributions

M-GK and SWS conceived and designed the experiments. M-GK performed the experiments. SWS contributed reagents/materials/analytical tools. TJP, HO, HJK, and SWS acquired and interpreted clinical data. All author wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Hee Joo Kim or Sang Wook Son.

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Conflict of interest

Tae Jun Park, Haneul Oh, Min-Gyu Kim, Jaehyung Kim, Hee Joo Kim, and Sang Wook Son declare no conflicts of interest.

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All experimental protocols and procedures were approved and conducted according to the approved guidelines.

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Park, T.J., Oh, H., Kim, MG. et al. Urban particulate matters induce EGR-1 expression in keratinocytes which correlates with the severity of psoriasis. Mol. Cell. Toxicol. 17, 195–200 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13273-021-00125-w

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