Study Indicates Resistin May Function as Biomarker for Psoriasis Severity

Psoriasis is potentially associated with metabolic disorders, new findings suggest, and resistin may provide a biomarker for disease severity, although the relationship may need additional research.1

Magdalena Szczegielniak, from the department of dermatology at the Medical University of Lodz in Poland, worked alongside a team of other investigators in the analysis that led to these conclusions. The team set out to assess the inflammatory potential and association of psoriasis with metabolic and cardiovascular risk, looking at serum concentrations and correlations with related biomarkers and disease severity.

Szczegielniak and colleagues noted that an increase in markers can suggest inflammatory processes among patients that point to the risk of conditions accompanying psoriatic disease. They looked at serum concentrations of such hormones as resistin, a peptide hormone which is found both in adipose and non-adipose tissues and known to amplify systemic inflammation.

“The purpose of this study was to assess the inflammatory potential of psoriasis and the risk of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases in patients with psoriasis by analyzing the serum concentrations of homocysteine, adiponectin, resistin, leptin, and pentraxin 3 in pediatric patients with psoriasis and in a control group,” Szczegielniak and colleagues wrote.1 “Moreover, determination of the relationship between the studied markers and the severity of psoriatic lesions was carried out.”

The investigative team recruited patients from 3 pediatric dermatology centers between March 2020 - March 2022 for their analysis, all of whom had plaque psoriasis and were treated exclusively with topical drugs. The team evaluated a total of 103 participants, with 75 children involved in the study (47 girls and 28 boys) between the ages of 2 - 17 years.

The study’s control arm was made up of 28 children, with 15 girls and 13 boys, all of whom were without psoriasis. These individuals had been selected from patients presenting with non-inflammatory dermatologic conditions at the aforementioned dermatology centers.

The investigators looked at disease severity through an evaluation of Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) and of patients’ body surface areas (BSA). They conducted measurements of body weight and height to determine subjects’ body mass index (BMI). The team used BMI and patients’ ages to place them into categories labeled normal weight (<85th and >5th percentile), overweight (≥85th and <95th percentile), or obese (≥95th percentile).

The analysis required the collection among all subjects of fasting venous blood samples, 8 mL drawn into serum tubes and 4 mL into EDTA tubes. After centrifugation at 1000× g for 15 minutes, the resulting serum and plasma were aliquoted by the investigators into Eppendorf tubes and stored. Prior to their assessment, they thawed and homegenized the samples.

The investigative team used enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits to assess trial subjects’ serum concentrations of adiponectin, homocysteine, resistin, pentraxin 3, and leptin. The concentration of homocysteine was reported in µmol/L, pentraxin 3 in pg/mL, resistin and leptin in ng/mL, and adiponectin in µg/mL.

The team looked at correlations between biomarker levels and different variables such as BSA, PASI, and disease duration. They further assessed relationships that were shown to be statistically significant (P < .05) using effect size measures such as Spearman’s rho. All of the statistical tests were 2-tailed, with the team setting statistical significance at P < .05, and effect sizes being reported where applicable.

Overall, the investigators concluded that children with psoriasis were shown to have higher serum levels of resistin, homocysteine, leptin, and pentraxin 3. They were also found to have lower serum levels of adiponectin as opposed to those included in the study’s control arm.

Notably, the investigative team highlighted a positive correlation that had been observed between resistin serum concentration and the severity of subjects’ psoriasis. Additionally, they reported that elevated resistin levels showed a link with higher scores on PASI and BSA.

“In our study, the levels of the analyzed biomarkers in psoriasis patients were not related to body weight, which implies that psoriasis without accompanying obesity may be an independent risk factor for systemic inflammation,” they wrote.1 “Resistin, in particular, appeared to be a potential marker of psoriasis severity, which could be used for monitoring disease progression. However, this relationship requires further investigation.”1

References

1. Szczegielniak M, Lesiak A, Reich A, Opalińska A, Zakrzewski B, Arasiewicz H, Grabowski K, Nolberczak D, Narbutt J. Inflammation-Related Markers in Pediatric Psoriasis: Resistin as a Potential Marker of Psoriasis Severity. J Clin Med. 2025 Mar 3;14(5):1689. doi: 10.3390/jcm14051689. PMID: 40095687; PMCID: PMC11900389.

2. Johnston, A.; Arnadottir, S.; Gudjonsson, J.E.; Aphale, A.; Sigmarsdottir, A.A.; Gunnarsson, S.I.; Steinsson, J.T.; Elder, J.T.; Valdimarsson, H. Obesity in psoriasis: Leptin and resistin as mediators of cutaneous inflammation. Br. J. Dermatol. 2008, 159, 342–350.