Analysis of epidermal growth factor receptor gene in psoriasis.

Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) plays an important role in cell proliferation. In psoriasis, increased histochemical expression of EGF receptor has been reported in the epidermis. In order to elucidate the mechanism of this increase, we studied the EGF receptor gene organization in psoriasis. DNAs were extracted from white blood cells of 5 patients with psoriasis and 5 normal controls and also from epidermis of 2 psoriatic patients and 1 normal control, and analyzed by Southern blot technique. There were no differences in the structural organization of EGF receptor gene in either white blood cells or epidermis between psoriatic patients and normal controls. These results suggest that the histochemical increase of EGF receptor in the epidermis of psoriatic patients is not due to a structural change in this gene.