The role of two endogenous proteases of the stratum corneum in degradation of desmoglein-1 and their reduced activity in the skin of ichthyotic patients

We investigated the role of stratum corneum (SC) trypsin-like and chymotrypsin-like serine proteases in the degradation of desmoglein-1 (DSG-1) in the SC sheet. DSG-1, whose presence in the SC sheet was confirmed by Western blot analysis, was degraded completely during incubation of the SC sheet in Tris buffer. The degradation of DSG-1 was inhibited by the addition of protease inhibitors, such as aprotinin or a mixture of leupeptin and chymostatin. Either leupeptin or chymostatin alone did not inhibit its degradation. These results indicated that both trypsin-like and chymotrypsin-like serine proteases are involved in the degradation of DSG-1. We further examined the activities of the two proteases in the SC obtained from patients with ichthyosis vulgaris, in whom SC desquamation is abnormal. The enzymatic activities measured using synthetic substrates were significantly decreased in these ichthyotic SC samples. This result supports the idea that these proteases play an important role in normal SC desquamation.