Figure 8. PCSK9 expression directly correlates with inflammatory mediators of psoriasis.

(A) Individual scatter plots showing correlations between PCSK9 and IL1RL1, IL27RA, ISG20, STX3, and STX11 in cultured keratinocytes. In these plots, each dot represents an in vitro cultured keratinocyte cell line under a different culture condition (control, IL-4, IL-13, IL-17A, IFN-α, IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-4 and IL-13, IL-17A and IFN-γ, IL-17A, and TNF-α). PCSK9 expression is shown on the x axis with each plot depicting a different gene on the y axis. (B) Box-and-whisker plots showing expression of genes of interest in cultured keratinocytes displaying the REF allele or rs662145 C > T variant PCSK9 allele. Differential gene expression was calculated using DESeq2. REF, reference; HET, heterozygous; HOMO, homozygous. (C) Box plots showing effects of in vitro siRNA knockdown of PCSK9 in keratinocyte cell lines on expression of genes of interest. Each dot represents an independently cultured and independently transfected HaCaT keratinocyte cell line (n = 3). The y axis depicts log₂ transformed normalized reads and the x axis compares control keratinocyte cell lines with PCSK9 knockdown cell lines, with P values calculated via Student’s t test.