Expression level and clinical significance of miRNA-138 in skin lesions of psoriasis patients

XIE Yanfei; TENG Wei; LIU Peng

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1002-7386.2025.10.010

Abstract：Objective To investigate the expression level of miRNA-138 in skin lesions of psoriasis and its clinical significance.Methods A total of 118 patients with normal psoriasis admitted to Cangzhou People's Hospital from January 2019 to December 2022 were randomly selected as the psoriasis group.They were subgrouped into the quiescent stage group(n=43)and progressive stage group(n=75)based on disease progression;youth group(18-44 years,n=41),middle-aged group(45-59 years,n=47)and elderly group(≥60 years,n=30)based on age;male group(n=78)and female group(n=40)based on gender;and mild group(n=32),moderate group(n=56)and severe group(n=30)based on disease severity.Another 50 patients with burns(scalds)treated in our hospital during the same period were selected as the control group.Skin tissues were taken as test specimens,and miR-138 level and protein expression of the human telomerase reverse transcriptase(hTERT)were compared.The correlation between miR-138 and hTERT was analyzed by correlation analysis.The correlations of miR-138 and hTERT levels with age,gender,and disease severity were identified by Spearman correlation.Results Compared with the control group,miR-138 level was significantly lower and hTERT protein level was significantly higher in the skin tissues of the psoriasis group(P＜0.05).Compared with patients in the quiescent stage group,patients in the progressive stage group had significantly lower level of miR-138 and higher protein level of hTERT in skin tissues(P＜0.05).The level of miR-138 in skin tissues of male patients was significantly lower than that of female patients,and the protein level of hTERT was significantly higher than that of female patients(P＜0.05).In psoriasis patients with increasing age,miR-138 levels gradually increased and protein levels of hTERT gradually decreased(P＜0.05).The protein levels of hTERT gradually increased with the increasing severity grading of psoriasis,while miR-138 levels gradually decreased(P＜0.05).There was a negative correlation between miR-138 levels and protein levels of hTERT in skin tissues of the psoriasis group(P＜0.05).Meanwhile,miR-138 was negatively correlated with age,gender,and severity grading of psoriasis patients,and hTERT was positively correlated with them(P＜0.05).Conclusion The expression of miR-138 in the skin lesion tissues of patients with psoriasis vulgaris is significantly reduced,while the protein level of hTERT protein significantly increases.They are differentially expressed in psoriasis vulgaris patients of different genders,age groups and severity.MiR-138 is expected to play a targeting regulatory role in the protein expression of hTERT.