In vitro effects of enzymes of polymorphonuclear leukocytes on the antigenicity of stratum corneum.

Anti-stratum corneum (SC) antibodies of human serum bind in vitro to the SC of frozen sections of normal skin of psoriatic patients and of healthy controls. Pretreatment of skin sections with selected dilutions of acid extracts from polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) prior to the incubation with serum containing anti-SC autoantibodies enhances this binding in comparison with binding to untreated sections. Pretreatment of at least some specimens with higher concentrations of the same PMN extracts brings about a reduction in their reactivity with anti-SC autoantibodies. These findings indicate that enzymes of PMN are capable of altering SC antigens by first increasing and then decreasing their reactivity with SC autoantibodies.