Effects of glucocorticosteroids on cultured human skin fibroblasts

Abstract

An immediate depression of the rate of cell proliferation occurred upon addition of glucocorticosteroids to cultures of human skin fibroblasts in the early growth stages. A reduced sensitivity or even insensitivity of the fibroblasts to growth inhibition inhibition was found upon the addition of the steroids at later stages of cell growth, when the cell density has increased. The inhibition in the early growth stages is transient and is most pronounced if the cultured medium is not renewed. This transient inhibition is not due to the development of steroid-resistant cell lines, and resembles the effect called tachyphylaxis, as is also observed in vasoconstriction tests.

Proliferative responses of fibroblasts from psoriatic and normal skin to clobetasol propionate

“…but at 10 µg/ml there was some cytotoxicity in the psoriatic fibroblasts. It was also clear from viability tests and recovery experiments that the cells surviving an initial toxicity werc capahle of further proliferation even in the presence of the drug: these observation� conlirm some of the lindings of Ponec et al (2) with clobetasol propionate. il is not known whether the dead cells represent a random fraction.…”

Psoriasis: consensus on topical therapies

“…Tachyphylaxis was identified by du Vivier and Staughton 32 and recently reviewed by Feldman 33 . However, there remain inconsistent and sometimes conflicting reports regarding this important issue 34,35 …”