Content - Volume 65, Issue 2

Ultraviolet radiation has been stated to inhibit afferent as well as efferent phases of allergic contract dermatitis. In this controlled study 17 female patients with nickel allergy were studied by three different protocols after an initial determination of their degree of hypersensitivity. They were patch tested with nickel sulfate immediately after UVB, 4-6 days after UVB, or immediately after e ...

Suction blisters were raised in lesions and normal appearing skin of patients with psoriasis. The blister roof which contains the epidermis separated at the dermal-epidermal junction was stained with ATPase, OKT-6 and anti-HLA-DR monoclonal antibodies. The technique permits the counting of the Langerhans´ cells per mm2. Their mean number varied between 888-987 cells per mm2 in control subjects wi ...

To obtain data on the function of the epidermal barrier in patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) the transepidermal water loss (TEWL) was studied. Measurements were made on three body locations in two clinically well defined groups of patients with AD and in a control group. The TEWL was found to be increased both in dry non-eczematous skin and in clinically normal skin in patients with AD. The TEW ...

The functions of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) emigrating into the skin and of others separated simultaneously from the circulation were determined and compared in healthy individuals. The PMNs emigrating into the skin were separated with a skin chamber technique. The C3 rosette forming capacities of the skin migrating and the circulating PMNs were similar. The chemotactic responsiveness was ...

The occurrence of contact urticaria was studied in 101 laboratory technicians investigated for allergy to laboratory animals. Fourteen cases of contact urticaria caused by rat were found. Other animals causing contact urticarial reactions were mouse (7), guinea-pig (4), and cat (2). Hand eczema was not found in laboratory technicians with contact urticaria and IgE-antibodies to laboratory animals.

Vascular changes in morphea were studied in skin biopsies from 14 patients. Small vessels with pericytes present the changes in three different patterns. The first was the endothelial cells in a stimulated condition and thickened vascular wall with infiltrating macrophages and mast cells. The second was characterized by thick basal lamina of pericytes and the third by activated pericytes with infi ...

Specific antibodies against basement membrane associated, connective tissue components: type IV and V collagens, laminin, fibronectin and heparan sulphate proteoglycan were used to study the basement membrane-like structures in cylindroma lesions. All these components were immunohistochemically demonstrated as a band surrounding islands of epithelial cells and all except fibronectin also inside th ...

Cowden´s disease was diagnosed in three siblings (two sisters and a brother) in a Jewish Israeli family of Yemenite origin. The typical mucocutaneous lesions of the disease were present in all three cases. There were hamartomas involving other body systems, including euthyroid multinodular goiter (in all 3 cases), gastrointestinal polyposis (in 2 cases) and hemangioma (in one case). Developmental ...

Pityriasis rosea is a skin disease which is obscure in its etiology and pathogenesis. We studied its immunopathology by immunophenotyping the inflammatory cells in situ using monoclonal antibodies that define leukocyte subsets. Findings as to T-cells and their major subsets did not reveal disease-specific data. Monocytes stained only rarely. Neither natural killer cells, B-cells nor plasma cells w ...

During a 5-year period, 61 patch-test-negative patients whose dermatitis flared after oral challenge with 2.5 mg nickel and 143 patients with positive patch tests to nickel who were not challenged orally adhered to a diet intended to reduce the daily intake of nickel for at least one month. After 1 to 2 months of dieting the dermatitis in 121 of the 204 patients had cleared or was markedly improve ...

In an open study 58 patients with chronic dermatophytosis mainly caused by Trichophyton rubrum and five patients with Tinea capitis were treated with ketoconazole. The indications were ineffectiveness of or side effects to griseofulvin. Response to treatment varied from 1 week in scalp infections to 11 weeks in toe-nail lesions. Dermatophytosis of hands and feet were cured in 25%, marked improveme ...

316 women with genital warts were studied to relate treatment response to concomitant genital infection at presentation. There was a highly significant difference between the response patterns of those patients who presented with warts alone, and those presenting with other infections (most commonly candidiasis and non-specific vaginitis). The diagnosis and treatment of associated infections haste ...

A tyrosinase obtained from cultured human melanoma cells was found to oxygenate 2,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine to the strongly cytotoxic amino acid 6-hydroxydopa (2,4,5-trihydroxyphenylalanine). The oxygenation was dependent on the presence of a reducing co-substrate such as dopa or dopamine. The rate of oxygenation of 2,4-dihydroxyphenyl-D,L-alanine was similar to that of L-tyrosine, the normal subst ...

Digitonin, which is known to cause extensive damage to cytomembranes in general, was found to have a most remarkable effect on epidermal Langerhans´ cells. Thus, it generates a membrane-sandwiching process resulting in the formation of large discs which except for the differences in size have the same morphology as ordinary Birbeck granules. This demonstrates that the cytomembrane of the Langerha ...

Indirect immunofluorescence experiments performed on various mammalian tissues rich in Merkel cells show that these cells contain keratin intermediate filaments and desmosomal proteins, which demonstrates their epithelial nature. Although they share desmosomes with neighbouring keratinocytes, Merkel cells differ from them, since they contain keratin polypeptides usually found in simple epithelia. ...

The affected skin of pityriasis alba showed functional defects in both hygroscopicity and water-holding capacity detectable by water sorption-desorption test. Furthermore using skin surface biopsy technique in 5 patients, we noted that the mean area of corneocyte obtained from the affected skin of pityriasis alba was smaller and that the surface of that area showed a more prominent villous pattern ...

Juvenile xanthogranuloma is a benign, nevoid histiocytosis not related to histiocytosis X. The lesions wrinkle, then flatten out and in 40% of the cases they leave no trace without any treatment. It is more frequent in boys. One patient also had granulomatous lesions of the eye, 8 had caf?©-au-lait spots and 3 epilepsy.

5-S-cysteinyldopa concentrations were determined by high-pressure liquid chromatography and electrochemical detection in plasma from normally pigmented patients and patients with oculocutaneous albinism, both tyrosinase-positive and tyrosinase-negative. The plasma 5-S-cysteinyldopa concentrations were similar in all three groups, suggesting that 5-S-cysteinyldopa can be produced by mechanisms whic ...

A double-blind cross over study on the effect of 3 months´ treatment with 1% topical minoxidil on 23 individuals with alopecia areata was performed. Thirteen of the patients showed some increase in terminal hair growth, the difference between the number of responders to placebo and minoxidil lotion being significant (p less than 0.005). However, in one case only, the result was cosmetically satis ...

Three generations of a not consanguineous Italian family and 40 subjects suffering from alopecia areata (AA) and residing in Northern Italy were studied. There were 321 healthy control subjects of both sexes. Six family members from three generations were affected with alopecia universalis. The subjects were HLA-phenotyped using different HLA-A, B and C antigen specificities. No significant associ ...

Acute febrile neutrophilic dermatosis or Sweet´s syndrome is a rare disease, which occasionally is seen in patients with myeloid leukemia. We present a case of Sweet´s syndrome in a patient with an abnormal chromosome pattern in bone marrow aspirate. Initially the patient had flu-like symptoms with high fever. Two weeks later raised, erythematous and painful plaques appeared on the skin. Various ...

Seventeen patients with mycosis fungoides and lymph node involvement were treated with polycytostatic courses consisting of cyclophosphamide, vincristin (Oncovin) and prednisone (COP). A response rate of 76% was found. In 7 patients (41%) a complete remission and in 6 patients (35%) a partial remission was obtained. The actuarial survival rate at 5 years was 64%. This treatment was well-tolerated ...