Eccrine sweat glands are the predominant ectodermal appendage of human skin and essential in thermoregulation. Despite their importance, developmental program cellular interactions that drive eccrine gland formation poorly understood. In mouse volar skin, to which restricted this species, expression transcription factor Engrailed-1 (En1) basal ectoderm is required for specification placodes, wh...

In the past decade the molecular basis of many inherited syndromes has been unravelled. This article reviews the clinical and genetic aspects of inherited syndromes that are characterised by skin appendage neoplasms, including Cowden syndrome, Birt-Hogg-Dube syndrome, naevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome, generalised basaloid follicular hamartoma syndrome, Bazex syndrome, Brooke-Spiegler syndr...

Balloon cell melanoma is a rare melanoma subtype, with only one previous case with dermatoscopy published. It is often non-pigmented, leading to diagnostic difficulty, and there is a tendency for lesions to be thick at diagnosis. We report a case of balloon cell melanoma on the forearm of a 61-year-old man with both polarized and non-polarized dermatoscopy and dermatopathology. It presented as ...

Melanocytes are pigment-producing cells derived from the neural crest. These specialized exocrine cells produce melanin, which is packaged and dispersed to neighboring keratinocytes in organelles called melanosomes. Within the melanocyte, tyrosine is converted to dopa, and then dopaquinone via the bifunctional enzyme tyrosinase. Dopaquinone is oxidized further to form the pigment melanin. Each ...

Dermal sinuses are well-characterized lesions (1-3). A patient with a dermal sinus frequently has a hairy nevus or dimple overlying the tract. Yet, despite having this cutaneous marker, these patients often seek medical attention only after they suffer an infectious complication of the tract. Although infection most commonly will occur in the form of a cutaneous abscess, another more serious an...

This study addresses the development of an animal model for human giant congenital nevomelanocytic nevi (GCNN). Skin grafts were made from 1) non-involved split-thickness skin from a 12-month-old GCNN patient, 2) nevus split-thickness skin from the same GCNN patient, 3) nevus full-thickness skin, and 4) cadaveric human split-thickness skin. For groups 1) and 2), human epidermal and dermal cells...

BACKGROUND Because body weight-bearing produces a shift in the horny layer, acral melanocytic nevus on the body weight-bearing area of the sole showed a regular fibrillar pattern (FP) due to slanting of the melanin columns in the horny layer. On the other hand, acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM) on the body weight-bearing area of the sole tended to show irregular fibrillar pattern showing rather ...

Oculodermal melanocytosis, also known as Nevus of Ota, is a hamartomatous melanocytic nevus of dermal melanocytes. It presents as a bluish grey patch on the face, which may be congenital or acquired involving the area of distribution of the ophthalmic and maxillary branches of the trigeminal nerve. The nevus can be unilateral or bilateral, and, in addition to skin, it may involve ocular and ora...

Dr. José A. Cancelas Pérez, Servicio de Hematología y Hemoterapia, Hospital Ramón y Cajal E-28034 Madrid (Spain) Neutrophilic eccrine hidradenitis is a rare self-limited cutaneous disorder associated with chemotherapy in patients with acute myeloid leukemia. Clinical presentation is variable and histopathologic features characteristically include selective necrosis of the eccrine sweat glands w...

INTRODUCTION A retrospective study of melanocytic naevi was undertaken to assess the degree of clinico-pathological correlation and incidence of histological atypia. MATERIALS AND METHODS The case records from January to March 1996 of all patients with histologically diagnosed melanocytic naevi at the National Skin Centre were analysed. RESULTS Of the 240 lesions removed from 167 patients, ...