Serum soluble E-selectin levels decrease early during effective therapy in psoriatic patients

Soluble endothelial leukocyte adhesion molecule-1 (sELAM-1 or sE-selectin) is the released isoform of the transmembrane E-selectin, a molecule involved in the leukocyte rolling on the endothelial surfaces. Previous reports showed serum increases of different membrane molecule levels in psoriatic patients and correlations between their serum values and the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) scores, without-early significant serum decreases after effective therapy. Serum sE-selectin values were also higher in patients with active psoriasis. Using a commercially available ELISA kit, the sera of 10 patients (6 females and 4 males, median age 42.5 years, range 24-52, median PASI of 15.2, range 5.5-28.8) were studied before and during therapy (local calcipotriol, 5 patients and systemic: cyclosporin-A, 5 patients) at two, four, and eight weeks. Considering all the times of observation (40 pairs), serum sE-selectin values correlated highly with the PASI scores (R = 0.56, p = 0.0001) Moreover, the serum levels of this molecule decreased rapidly during therapy (p <0.05 after 2 weeks) and dropped even more during the subsequent weeks of treatment; as the