Exacerbation of chronic psoriasis can be associated with streptococcal throat infections, and T cells that respond to peptide sequences common to streptococcal M proteins and skin keratins have been detected in patients’ blood. To our knowledge, we have conducted the first blinded, prospective study to assess the impact of tonsillectomy on psoriasis. Twenty-nine patients with chronic psoriasis and history of exacerbation after sore throat were randomly assigned to tonsillectomy (n = 15) or control (n = 14) groups and monitored for 2 y clinically and by enumeration of circulating skin homing T cells that respond to short homologous M protein or keratin peptides. Thirteen patients (86%) showed sustained improvement after tonsillectomy ranging from 30 to 90% reduction in disease severity. Furthermore, there was a close correlation between the degree of clinical improvement in individual patients and reduction in the frequency of peptide-reactive skin-homing T cells in their circulation. No corresponding clinical or immunologic changes were observed among the controls. These findings indicate that tonsillectomy may have a beneficial effect on chronic psoriasis because the palatine tonsils generate effector T cells that recognize keratin determinants in the skin.
CITATION STYLE
Thorleifsdottir, R. H., Sigurdardottir, S. L., Sigurgeirsson, B., Olafsson, J. H., Sigurdsson, M. I., Petersen, H., … Valdimarsson, H. (2012). Improvement of Psoriasis after Tonsillectomy Is Associated with a Decrease in the Frequency of Circulating T Cells That Recognize Streptococcal Determinants and Homologous Skin Determinants. The Journal of Immunology, 188(10), 5160–5165. https://doi.org/10.4049/jimmunol.1102834
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