BACKGROUND Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare histiocytic disorder of unknown etiopathogenesis. Its clinical presentation is variable and ranges from isolated skin or bone disease to a life-threatening multisystem condition. LCH can occur at any age but is more frequent in the pediatric population. A neoplastic origin of this disease has been suggested due to the discovery of the mut...

Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) combines in one nosological category a group of diseases that have widely disparate clinical manifestations but are all characterized by accumulation of proliferating cells with surface markers and ultrastructural features similar to cutaneous Langerhans cells (LCs). In particular, careful molecular analyses of mouse models and human LCH samples suggest that ...

Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare disease of unknown cause, characterized by the proliferation of pathogenic Langerhans cells and cytokine overproduction causing inflammation, infiltration and destruction of many tissues of the body. LCH is a heterogeneous condition and may present with simple painful bony lesions, often affecting the skull or long bones, chronic otitis, proptosis o...

Langerhans' cells were observed to migrate into chemically injured corneal epithelium of pigmented and albino guinea pigs in substantial numbers. Whereas the migration of Langerhans' cells was a regular occurrence in both pigmented and nonpigmented animals, the migration of melanocytes occurred in only a portion of the pigmented animals and in fewer numbers. These observations may have signific...

Solitary pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis occurs predominantly in young adults, who are frequently heavy smokers. Besides the strong association to smoking, it differs from childhood Langerhans cell histiocytosis as well in that it is a polyclonal disorder, and the lesional Langerhans cells in this form of disease are reported to display mature markers. Thus, in this study we set out to ...