The deficiency of an acid-to-ester conversion seen on the skin of psoriatics also occurs in a significant number of normal relatives, a University of Chicago study has found.
This has led to the hypothesis that this inability is governed by a dominant inherited anomaly, Gary L. Peck, MD, told the Society for Investigative Dermatology.
Some two years ago, it was found that the ability of psoriatic skin surface to convert palmitic acid to cholesterol was impaired. This finding was made by a Chicago group that included Agnes B. Gara, MS, and Allan L. Lorincz, MD, coauthors with Dr. Peck.
The esterification ability of serious psoriatics, they found, was only about 10% of normal subjects.
In further studies, 66 persons were tested for this capacity. Thirteen were patients under active treatment for serious psoriasis. The remainder were relatives of the patients, normal controls, and three patients with either atopic dermatitis or