Identification of Mycobacteria species in cutaneous lesions of Sarcoidosis by PCR-Restriction Ragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method

Background: Sarcoidosis is a granulomatous multisystem disease of unknown etiology. It has recently been tired to detect Mycobacteria genome in biopsy specimens of patients with sarcoidosis by Polymorphism chain reaction method. Objective: To detect and identify Mycobacteria species in cutaneous lesions of the patients with sarcoidosis by PCR-RFLP. Patients and methods: 20 patients with clinical diagnosis of sarcoidosis were enrolled in this study. Clinical manifestations, appearance of naked granuloma under light microscope and exclusion of other diagnoses confirmed the diagnosis of sarcoidosis in the patients. By PCR-RFLP, genome of Mycobacteria species was searched in paraffin embedded specimen of skin biopsies of the patients. Four PCR positive skin biopsy specimens of patients with cutaneous tuberculosis were used as positive control. 10 skin biopsy specimens with other than tuberculosis were used as negative control. Results: Mycobacteria genome was not detected in any specimens of the patients. Conclusion: Our findings do not support the role of Mycobacteria species in the pathogenesis of sarcoidosis.