A prospective study of the mRNA expression of various antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) was undertaken in 42 atopic dermatitis (AD) patients, 35 psoriasis vulgaris (PV) patients and 18 healthy controls. Skin biopsies were taken to determine mRNA levels of human-beta-defensin (hBD-1), hBD-2, hBD-3, LL-37, psoriasin, RNase-7, interferon-gamma and IL-10. Most AMPs investigated proved to be overexpressed in AD and PV compared to controls. However, hBD-2 and RNase-7 differed significantly between AD and PV patients. PV patients had higher hBD-2 levels and AD patients had higher RNase-7 levels. A moderate to strong linear relationship existed between specific AMPs in AD; this was seen to a lesser extent in PV patients (Gambichler, T. et al. ...