Pemphigus vulgaris (PV) is an autoimmune blistering skin disease characterized by suprabasal acantholysis and by autoantibodies against desmoglein 3 localized on desmosomes. In addition, caspases also seem to participate in this blistering disease. Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) is a non-receptor tyrosine kinase involved in cytoskeleton remodelling and formation and disassembly of cell adhesion st...

We report a case of a 35-year-old female with a persistent pruritic acantholytic and dyskeratotic eruption on the chest and vulva. The light and electron microscopic studies showed suprabasal epidermal clefting with acantholysis and dyskeratotic cells. We suggest that the most appropriate term for this case is that of benign persistent papular acantholytic and dyskeratotic eruption.

Pemphigus vulgaris is an autoimmune disease characterized by suprabasal blisters with acantholysis, which has a fatal course in a large number of untreated patients. Systemic corticosteroid therapy is considered first-line therapy. Adjuvant treatment with the goal of sparing corticosteroids include, among others, dapsone. This drug is not without side effects and its use requires clinical and l...

A clinicopalhological study of 70 cases of pemphigus observed over a span of four and a half years from January 1992 to June 1996 at the Sir J.J. Group of Hospitals and Grant Medical College, Mumbai is reported. Pemphigus vulgaris constituted the single largest group of 43 cases, followed by pemphigus foliaceus (25 cases) and pemphigus vegetans (2 cases). Majority of the cases were seen in the ...

These confirmatory reports have verified all the essential features of the disease that was first described. Mucosal ulceration in the form of intractable stomatitis is the most constant clinical feature of the disease. In no case to-date has this been absent. Cutaneous manifestations including blisters, lichenoid eruption or erythema multiforme like lesions are highly variable. These can chang...

Darier disease is an autosomal-dominant inherited condition caused by mutation of a gene, which produces a protein involved in calcium channel regulation. The disease has a variety of manifestations and lacks consistent genotype-phenotype correlations. Acral hemorrhagic Darier disease causes macules, papules, vesicles and/or hemorrhagic blisters on the extremities. Other classic signs of the di...

Abstract Background A hypertrophic / vegetating variant of Darier disease causing massive verruciform genital tumors is exceedingly rare. Case presentation woman in her late 50s underwent wide resection vulva and inguinal skin due to lesion. She had crusted keratotic plaques with appearance follicular keratosis (with a greasy, warty texture) the back, neck, face, extremities for 27 years. Previ...

Hailey-Hailey disease (HHD) and Darier's disease (DD) are caused by mutations in Ca(2+)-ATPases with the end result of desmosomal disruption and suprabasal acantholysis. Tight junctions (TJ) are located in the granular cell layer in normal skin and contribute to the epidermal barrier. Aberrations in the epidermal differentiation, such as in psoriasis, have been shown to lead to changes in the e...

Hailey-Hailey disease (HHD, MIM 16960) is an autosomal dominant disease characterized by suprabasal cell separation (acantholysis) of the epidermis. The clinical features vary and include crusted erosions with vesicular pustules, and erythematous scaly plaques at sites of friction and flexures. The skin lesions are often exacerbated by heat, sweating, mechanical trauma, infection and exposure i...

The transition between the main subtypes of pemphigus, pemphigus vulgaris (PV), and pemphigus foliaceus (PF) has rarely been reported. Moreover, the development of PV in a patient with PF is much more unusual than that of PF in a patient with PV. We report a 48-year-old man who presented with cutaneous lesions showing the typical clinical and histological features of PF. Five years later, his s...