Psoriatic hair-follicle cells. II. Morphological differentiation of outer root-sheath cells in culture.

Psoriatic human hair-follicle keratinocytes were cultured and then examined using light and electron microscopy. In comparison to control cultures derived from non-psoriatics, there were significant differences: stratification in general was more extensive; suprabasal cells were flat instead of round; there were almost no depositions of basal lamina or of cellular debris on the growth substrate; numerous membrane coating granules and a few keratohyalin granules were present earlier in psoriatic cultures than in control cultures; and the differentiation pattern resulted in an earlier appearance of corneocyte-like cells, and clusters of these corneocyte-like cells appeared to have been shed into the culture medium. As in control cultures, no distinct stratum corneum was found. Whether these differences between psoriatic cultures and control cultures reveal an aberrant differentiation pattern for psoriatic cells in vitro is as yet unknown: due to the faster outgrowth in psoriatic cultures, a multilayered and therefore further-differentiated structure near the hair follicle could be obtained more rapidly in psoriatic than in normal skin.