Reduction of different inflammatory cell types of the innate immune system in psoriatic skin during etanercept treatment

To investigate whether specific markers for innate immunity would diminish with successful treatment in psoriasis, we analyzed lesional and non-lesional skin biopsies taken from patients with moderate to severe psoriasis during 12 weeks of treatment with etanercept in correlation with the clinical response. In the clinical responders (PASI reduction > 50%), all markers (CD3, CD68, CD161, elastase, BDCA-2, TNF-alpha) showed a decline during treatment, indicating a pivotal role for innate immunity in the pathogenesis of psoriasis.