Establishment of a Keratin 14/17-Induced Antigen-Specific Psoriasis-like Mouse Model

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune skin disease significantly impairing the patients’ quality of life. Keratin (K)14 and K17 are abnormally expressed in psoriasis patients and considered to be potential autoantigens triggering this disease. However, the animal model for psoriasis induced with a specific antigen is yet to be established. Here we show that vaccinating BALB/c and C57BL/6J mice with purified murine recombinant K14 or K17 antigen induced psoriasis-like clinical symptoms in 40 ± 30% of animals, such as erythema and scaling, accompanied by hallmark histopathological changes including significant epidermal hyperplasia and inflammatory cell infiltration in the lesions. Furthermore, the immunized mice produced high levels of specific antibodies against K14/K17 in the blood, along with antigen-specific T-cell responses. These data indicate that immunization of mice with K14 and K17 antigens could cause psoriasis-like symptoms with immunopathological features of psoriasis, providing a novel experimental animal model for investigating the pathogenesis of psoriasis and development of effective therapies.