Aquaporin 3 (AQP-3) modulatory effects of an herbal formulated cream in the management of skin psoriasis

Author(s): Harsha M. R.*, Baidyanath Mishra, Chaithra C. S., Vivekananda Ramana

Abstract

Aquaporins form a large family of integral, transmembrane water channel proteins that mainly function in transporting water over cellular membranes. Amongst aquaporins, aquaporin-3 (AQP-3) is the predominant skin aquaporin which is localised in the basal layer keratinocytes of epidermis in normal skin, and is found to be important in maintaining balanced skin hydration. In addition, several clinical studies have demonstrated reduced AQP-3 expression in cases of psoriasis, suggesting a strong relationship between AQP-3 expression levels and skin hydration/epidermal water loss in psoriatic skin. In scope of this, the potential to manipulate AQP-3 levels by skin care products designed to address psoriatic skin problems gains pharmaceutical attraction. Therefore, we examined the effects of InnoVision’s Psoriderm cream on AQP-3 expression in keratinocytic cell culture model in vitro. AQP-3 expression was found to be significantly increased upon treating keratinocytes with the study material. Test substance at concentrations, 350 and 700 µg/mL increased AQP-3 mRNA levels by 0.03 and 0.07 folds, compared to untreated control cells. In summary, it could be illustrated that using InnoVision’s Psoriderm in psoriasis care can up regulate AQP-3 expression in psoriatic skin, and thus may play a functional in bettering skin conditions in psoriatic skin lesions.

10.21746/ijbio.2016.07.001

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