Studies on the phagocytic activity of the granulocytes in psoriasis and palmoplantar pustulosis.

A kinetic method was used to determine the rates of phagocytosis of IgG-coated and C3b-IgG-coated latex particles by neutrophil granulocytes from twenty patients with psoriasis and twenty with palmoplantar pustulosis (PPP). Patients with psoriasis showed a highly increased rate of uptake of IgG-coated particles. An increased rate was also observed in patients with PPP. These results indicate enhanced Fc-receptor function. In healthy controls the uptake rate of C3b-IgG-coated particles was at least 30% higher than that of particles coated with IgG alone. In nearly half of the patients in the psoriasis and PPP groups the uptake rate failed to increase in the normal way, indicating that C3b dysfunction is common in both psoriasis and PPP. In neither group was there any relationship between the rate of phagocytosis and the clinical severity of the disease.