Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 8 pp 6823—6851

Figure 2. IGFBP2 is enhanced in the suprabasal layers of lesional psoriatic skin, and parallels p16 and p21 senescence markers. (A) IHC analysis of IGFBP2, p21 and phosphorylated p21 (p-p21, red-brown stained), as well as of p16 (red-stained), was performed on paraffin-embedded sections of biopsies obtained from psoriatic skin (n = 10), including non-lesional (NLS) (i), proximal-to-lesion (Pre-LS) (ii) and lesional (LS) zones of evolving plaques (iii), as well as from healthy donors (n = 6) (iv) and AD skin (n = 6) (v). Sections were counterstained with Mayer’s H&E. Bars, 100 μm. (B) Graphs show the mean of four-stage score values for IGFBP2, p16 and p-p21 epidermal expression, or the mean of the number of p21-positive cells ± SD. Two different sections were analysed for each staining, and the positivity was evaluated in five adjacent fields. (C) mRNA expression of IGFBP2, p16 and p21 was analysed by Real-time PCR on total RNA from healthy, NLS, LS biopsies (n = 6) and normalized to GAPDH levels. The results are shown as individual values, mean and ± SD of relative mRNA levels. In (B, C), *p ≤ 0.05, p** ≤ 0.01, as calculated by Mann–Whitney U test.