Psoriasis – Causes

Transcript

What are some causes of psoriasis? The exact cause of psoriasis is unknown. Psoriasis causes include a conglomerate of causes, including genetics, individual risk factors and triggers. Immune mechanisms, lifestyle choices, and environmental influences. There are many theories regarding the cause behind psoriasis, including inflammatory, vascular, environmental and genetic factors. Psoriasis is multi-factorial and is classified as an immune mediated inflammatory disease, or IMID. Genetic factors also play a role. An individual’s genetic profile influences the type of psoriasis they may obtain, as well as how it responds to treatment. There are genomic studies that report the histocompatibility complex HLAC0602, also known as HLACW6, which is associated with early onset psoriasis and guttate psoriasis. This major HLA or histocompatibility complex is not associated with arthritis, no dystrophy early onset psoriasis. Theories about what causes psoriasis need to explain why the skin is inflamed, reddish, and thickened. It is clear that inflammatory cytokines, messenger proteins, and other immune factors such as TNF alpha and interleukin 1 beta are responsible for the clinical features of psoriasis. Current theories appear to be leaning more towards the TH17 pathway and exploring the release of cytokine 17A and how it may contribute to these symptoms and findings.