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Psoriasis is a chronic systemic inflammatory disease with several abnormalities in hematopoiesis. During the last 30 years, stem cell science was intensively studied, also in the field of psoriasis, to discover therapeutic modalities by reversing the unbalance in lymphopoiesis. In fact, available results in literature have reported psoriasis remission after stem cell transplantation. The present review summarizes the current knowledge on psoriasis, stem cells and transplantation.

Idiopathic photodermatoses (IP) are a recurrent, acquired sunlight-induced rash of delayed onset, appearing after exposure to ultraviolet radiation in susceptible individuals. The aim of this study was to assess the photoprotective activity of polypodium leucotomos (PL) in IP.Fifty-seven patients affected by IP were recruited for the study (53 with polymorphic light eruption and 4 with solar urticaria). The use of UV protection filters or other drugs that could in some way interfere with exposure to light were excluded. All patients exposed themselves to sunlight while consuming 480 mg/day of PL extract orally. A statistical evaluation of the basal clinical conditions compared to those after sunlight exposure with PL was performed.About 73.68% of the patients had a benefit from the administered PL, with a significant reduction of skin reaction and subjective symptoms. No side effects were observed. Results were statistically significant (P0.05).PL complete absence of toxicity combined with its multifactorial protection, makes it an effective and safe treatment for photoprotection in IP.

Parapsoriasis has been described rarely in childhood; a few reports mention this condition as preceding early mycosis fungoides. We report a boy age 15 and a girl age 8 years with different clinical features of parapsoriasis who were followed clinically and histologically for about four years. Immunophenotyping of the skin infiltrate and a T cell receptor gene rearrangement analysis were performed on each. The infiltrate was composed mainly of CD4+ and CD45+ lymphocytes in the first patient and of CD8+ and CD45+ in the second. No T cell receptor gene rearrangements were found. The paucity of knowledge about the evolution of this entity in childhood and its relationship to mycosis fungoides makes follow-up critical. The importance of immunophenotyping and immunogenotyping is particularly stressed.