Case History A 67-year-old Sikh male was diagnosed with pemphigus vulgaris in 1996 when he presented with oral erosions. His disease remained controlled on long-term, low-dose prednisolone therapy. In 2004, he developed a verrucous keratotic plaque over the occipital region of his scalp and it had been gradually enlarging (Fig. 1). Biopsies were performed in 2004 and 2008 and histological featu...

To the Editor: Pemphigus foliaceus (PF) is a chronic autoimmune blistering disease caused by pathogenic serum autoantibodies against desmoglein 1. Initial treatments for PF include systemic corticosteroids, immunosuppressants, and dapsone.1 Rituximab, chimeric monoclonal antibody specific to CD20 molecule on B cells, was shown be effective severe refractory cases of pemphigus in meta-analysis.2...

Desmogleins are members of the cadherin superfamily which form the core of desmosomes. In vitro studies indicate that the cytoplasmic domain of desmogleins associates with plakoglobin; however, little is known about the role of this domain in desmosome recognition or assembly in vivo, or about the possible relation of desmoglein mutations to epidermal differentiation and disease. To address the...

BACKGROUND Prolactin is a hormone; in addition to it known roles, it has immunomodulatory effects on lymphocytes maturation and immunoglobulins production. Hyperprolactinemia has been demonstrated in various autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, type I diabetes mellitus, and Graves' disease. In view of the prolactin immunomodulatory roles, studying prol...

Different epithelial intercellular junctions contain distinct complexes incorporating plakoglobin. In adherens junctions, plakoglobin interacts with two molecules, the transmembrane adhesion protein of the cadherin family (e.g. E-cadherin) and alpha-catenin. The latter is thought to anchor the cadherin-plakoglobin complex to the cortical actin cytoskeleton. In desmosomes, plakoglobin forms a co...