Increased levels of lipocalin 2 in palmoplantar pustular psoriasis

Palmoplantar pustular psoriasis (PPP) is a chronic immune-mediated skin disease that mainly affects women in the forth to seventh decade of life. The few available data on the prevalence rate of PPP vary between 0.01 to 0.05% for Western countries [1] and 0.1% for Japan [2]. The disease is characterized by erupting, sterile intraepidermal pustules on the palms and soles, with the pustules often located within psoriasis vulgaris (PV)-like erythematous and desquamating lesions [3]. In about 25% of PPP patients concomitant PV is present, and the family history for PV is positive in about 30% of cases [3,4].