Immunohistochemical Expression of GLUT-1 and Ki-67 in Chronic Plaque Psoriasis

Many inflammatory mediators and other biological markers are upregulated in psoriatic lesions; some of these alterations also persist in nonlesional skin. Glucose is the major source of energy for cells, and glucose transporter 1 is the most common glucose transporter in humans (GLUT-1). The present study aimed at evaluating the pattern of expression of GLUT-1 and Ki-67 in psoriatic skin (involved and uninvolved) and correlating their expression with the clinicopathological parameters in the studied patients. This study was carried out on 30 patients presented with chronic plaque psoriasis and 10 apparently healthy volunteers as a control group. GLUT-1 was not expressed in epidermis of normal skin, whereas it was expressed in 76.6% of uninvolved and 86.7% of involved skin of psoriatic patients, where both the latter differed significantly regarding the intensity (P = 0.001) and localization (P = 0.001) of GLUT-1 expression. The percentage of Ki-67 expression did not differ significantly between involved and uninvolved skin of psoriatic patients, but they were higher than that of normal skin of control group. Nucleolar pattern of Ki-67 expression was significantly associated with male sex (P = 0.05), marked parakeratosis (P = 0.01), and marked angiogenesis (P = 0.05). GLUT-1 expression was associated with degree of acanthosis and percentage of Ki-67 expression. From this study, GLUT-1 is upregulated in psoriatic epidermis and may be involved in facilitation of keratinocyte proliferation in psoriasis. Nucleolar pattern of Ki-67 is an indicator of progressive keratinocyte proliferation in psoriasis.