Elevated serum cardiotrophin-1 and interleukin-17 levels in psoriasis

Psoriasis is a systemic, immune-mediated chronic disease in which the interleukin-23 (IL-23)/T-helper 17 (Th17) axis and its key effector cytokine, IL-17, play a central role. Cardiotrophin-1 (CT-1), a multifunctional cytokine from the IL-6 family, is involved in cardiovascular and metabolic homeostasis. This study aimed to evaluate serum levels of CT-1 and IL-17 in psoriasis, investigating their relationship with clinical parameters and their potential role as biomarkers for systemic inflammation and increased cardiometabolic risk. This study included 64 patients diagnosed with psoriasis vulgaris and 64 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Serum CT-1 and IL-17 levels were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Disease severity was assessed using the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) and the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI). Serum levels of both CT-1 and IL-17 were significantly higher in the psoriasis group compared to the control group (p < 0.001 for each). A strong positive correlation was found between the two cytokines (ρ = 0.890, p < 0.001). CT-1 showed stronger correlations with lipid parameters than IL-17. However, no significant correlation was observed for either cytokine with PASI or DLQI. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis demonstrated that CT-1 had stronger diagnostic accuracy (AUC: 0.915, 95% CI:0.869–0.961) for distinguishing psoriasis patients from healthy controls compared to IL-17 (AUC: 0.733, 95% CI:0.645–0.822). This study shows that CT-1 and IL-17 levels are significantly elevated in psoriasis and suggests that this increase may be associated with systemic inflammation and dyslipidemia. The observed discriminative performance of CT-1 supports its potential relevance as a marker of systemic inflammatory and cardiometabolic involvement, although its clinical utility requires further clarification.