Increased Abnormal Erythrocytes Caused by Spleen Filtration Deficiency Provide a Hypoxic Environment for the Occurrence of Psoriasis

Abstract

Psoriasis is a chronic autoimmune disease with a long disease course and frequent relapse characteristics. It is now recognised to be associated with epidermal environments of inflammatory cytokines. However, its pathogenesis is still not completely clear. We found the haemorheology of psoriatic patients to be abnormal, and ageing and deformed erythrocytes increased in the blood. The abnormal erythrocytes were more likely to induce psoriasis, which was confirmed in a mouse model induced by different blood components of psoriatic patients/healthy volunteers. Spleen filtration dysfunction, which caused abnormal erythrocytes, was also more likely to induce psoriasis, which was confirmed in a mouse model induced by splenectomy. The mechanism was the weakening of the ‘eat me’ function of spleen macrophages phagocytizing ageing and deformed erythrocytes, resulting in the dysfunction of spleen filtration and the increase of ageing and deformed erythrocytes in the body. Additionally, the decreased oxygen-carrying capacity and the declined antioxidant capacity of those erythrocytes led to the hypoxia environment, making psoriasis more likely to be induced. These findings demonstrate that spleen filtration dysfunction contributes to the pathogenesis of psoriasis and suggest that improving it may be an effective therapy for psoriasis and control its relapse.