ABSTRACT
The major etiologic clue for psoriasis was described by H. Koebner. He noted that psoriasis commonly occurred in areas of skin that had undergone an inflammatory response. The foregoing observations are in harmony with the concept that psoriasis is a disease which is induced/maintained by inflammatory stimuli in the genetically susceptible host. The reasons for studying the mononuclear cell component of inflammation, relative to psoriasis, are quite simple. The putative mediators of the inflammatory response, secondary to a mononuclear cell infiltrate, are felt to be lymphokines. Alpha fetal protein levels have been determined in eight subjects with 20% or more of their bodies covered with psoriasis. To determine the influence of sera from normal and psoriatic subjects on monocyte chemotaxis, individual sera from ten normal and ten untreated psoriatic subjects were diluted with nine volumes of media.
