psoriasis is a debilitating disease affecting more than 6 million Americans once thought of as simply a skin disease psoriasis is increasingly recognized as a serious disease with a significant impact on quality of life and emotional well-being what causes psoriasis and what do we know about the disease although the exact ideology of psoriasis is unknown it is thought to be multifactorial involving both environmental and genetic factors recent evidence suggests that immune disregulation May contribute to the inflammation in psoriasis leading to excessive keratinocytes production and formation of psoriatic plaque it is still unclear what triggers the immune dis regulation but the process is now understood to involve the participation of T lymphocytes and a number of specific cyto kindes they express or that affect them to become activated naive tea cells must first undergo a multi-step process that includes interactions with other cell types the inflammatory process is thought to begin when an antigen presenting cell such as a dendritic cell is activated by an antigen in the skin the dendritic cell travels to a lymph node where it interacts with the naive te- cell in a process that involves antigen presentation as well as necessary co- stimulatory signals this process results in the transformation of the te- cell into an activated memory te- cell because it remembers the antigen to which it has been exposed next phow cell proliferation and migration of tea cells through the circulation to the site of the inflammation in the skin during this phase migration and trafficking of these cells through the bloodstream involves adhesion molecules such as IAM 1 following t- cell extravasation into the skin other immune components such as cyto coses play an important role in the inflammatory Cascade these chemical Messengers es including tnf Alpha and interferon gamma are secreted by memory te- cells and lead to keratinocytic plaques in addition cyto inter lucans 12 and 23 are released by dendritic cells and contribute to the activation of te- cells which are thought to perpetuate the inflammatory process while our understanding of immunopathogenesis psoriasis has improved based on recent research the exact cause remains unknown and there is no cure some researchers believe that a more thorough understanding of the inflam fatory nature of psoriasis May provide further insights into the prevention and treatment of this disease