The Gene Expression Analysis of Peripheral Blood Monocytes From Psoriasis Vulgaris Patients With Different Traditional Chinese Medicine Syndromes

Psoriasis is chronic skin disease and an important health concern. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has shown great promise in the treatment of psoriasis. However, the correlation between TCM Syndromes and genomics of psoriasis has not been evaluated. Here, we analyzed gene expression profiling of monocytes from psoriasis vulgaris patients with different TCM syndrome types to reveal the molecular basis of different psoriasis syndromes. Of the 62 cases of psoriasis vulgaris recruited, 16, 23, and 23 cases were of blood-heat syndrome, blood stasis syndrome, and blood-dryness syndrome, respectively; 10 healthy controls were recruited as controls. Affymertix’s Gene Chip ®clariom D gene chip was used to detect the gene expression profile of peripheral blood monocytes collected from recruited individuals. Compared with the healthy control group, 1570 genes were up-regulated and 977 genes were down-regulated in the psoriasis vulgaris patients group; 798 genes and 108 genes were up- and down-regulated in the blood-heat syndrome group respectively; 319 and 433 genes were up- and down-regulated in the blood-dryness syndrome group, respectively; and 502 and 179 genes were up-and down-regulated in the blood-stasis syndrome group. Our analyses indicated not only common differential genes and pathways between psoriasis syndrome groups and healthy controls, but also syndrome-specific genes and pathways. The results of this study link the three syndromes at the gene level and will be useful for clarifying the molecular basis of TCM syndromes of psoriasis. Clinical Trial Registration: (http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=4390), identifier (ChiCTR-TRC-14005185).