With great interest we read the recent article by Usuda et al. (1), which describes the immunoelectron microscopy of tissue processed by rapid freezing and freeze-substitution without chemical fixatives. In their article, Usuda et al. say that “our result . . . should (sic) be the first demonstration of immunostaining of rapidly frozen tissue processed without chemical fixation.” We would like ...

Immunofluorescence is an immunological method used to demonstrate the presence of antigen and antibodies in tissues or serum. Immunofluorescence techniques have become indispensable in modern pathology laboratories and have greatly contributed to the diagnosis, treatment and understanding of autoimmune bullous diseases, hereditary bullous diseases, collagen-vascular diseases, many inflammatory ...

Bullous pemphigoid is a rare complication of immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment. We report case pembrolizumab-induced bullous in patient with malignant melanoma and concomitant cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma that regressed. A 77-year-old woman metastatic 3-year history growing skin nodule on her left calf was treated pembrolizumab. Histopathological examination the established diagnosis c...

A 22-year-old woman presented to the internal medicine department with a 2 month history of progressive blistering eruption. She also complained of arthralgias and lower limb edema. Physical examination found blisters on her hands (Picture 1) and feet. Skin biopsy showed subepidermal blister with polymorphous inflammatory infiltrate (Picture 2). Direct immunofluorescence demonstrated linear dep...

Clinicians should be mindful of all paediatric skin diseases, which present in a similar manner during the first months of life. Acrodermatitis enteropathica (AE) is a rare, bullous disorder that has a significant impact on the child’s quality of life and is fatal if untreated. AE is either a recessively inherited or a transiently acquired disorder. The hereditary form is caused by a genetic mu...

Lichen sclerosus is an inflammatory skin condition characterized by inflammation of the papillary dermis that leads to white scarlike plaques. It occurs classically in the genitals but also has extragenital manifestations with a variety of clinical presentations including a bullous variant. The purpose of this review is to characterize extragenital bullous lichen sclerosus, suggest that it may ...

Bullous pemphigoid is the most common autoimmune subepidermal blistering disease of the skin and mucous membranes. This disease typically affects the elderly and presents with itch and localized or generalized bullous lesions. In up to 20% of affected patients, bullae may be completely absent, and only excoriations, prurigo-like lesions, eczematous lesions, urticated lesions and/or infiltrated ...

The cell stress chaperone heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) has been implicated in inflammatory responses and its inhibition has proven successful in different mouse models of autoimmune diseases, including epidermolysis bullosa acquisita. Here, we investigated expression levels and secretory responses of Hsp90 in patients with bullous pemphigoid (BP), the most common subepidermal autoimmune bliste...