Murine sclerodermatous graft-vs-host disease (Scl GVHD) models human scleroderma, with prominent skin thickening, lung fibrosis, and up-regulation of cutaneous collagen mRNA. Fibrosis in Scl GVHD may be driven by infiltrating TGF-beta1-producing mononuclear cells. Here we characterize the origin and types of those cutaneous effector cells, the cytokine and chemokine environments, and the effect...

BACKGROUND Scleroderma is a fairly rare connective tissue disease whose autoantibody profile is associated with different clinical manifestations. The prevalence of autoantibodies in scleroderma is influenced by race and genetics. OBJECTIVE To study the prevalence of anti-Scl-70, anti-centromere (ACA) and anti-U1-RNP antibodies in patients with scleroderma in southern Brazil and verify their ...

Scleroderma renal crisis (SRC) represents the classic manifestation of kidney involvement in SSc. It particularly occurs in patients with early, rapidly progressive, diffuse skin involvement. Its detection requires the assessment of a few core set variables: arterial blood pressure, serum creatinine, and urinalysis. In clinical investigations SSc patients developing arterial hypertension after ...

BACKGROUND Antibodies targeting DNA topoisomerase I (ATA) or centromere proteins (ACA) are associated with clinical subsets of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc). The occurrence of those autoantibodies is considered to be mutually exclusive. OBJECTIVE To describe the clinical and immunogenetic data of three patients who are co-expressing both antibodies, and then review previous publicati...

Leishmaniasis affects 1.5-2 million new cases in the world annually. Two major complications of cutaneous leishamaniasis include diffuse cutaneous leishamaniasis (DCL ) occurring in the setting of deficient cell mediated immunity, typically with HIV infection, and chronic cutaneous leishamaniasis (CCL ) developing in approximately 4% of L. tropica infections in Iran and Afghanistan which also m...

We report on a 9-month-old female infant with multiple tense bullae and erosions covering the entire body, including the face, scalp, and trunk. The histopathological examination revealed sub-epidermal bullae with a dense dermal cellular infiltrate. The infiltrate was identified as a collection of mast cells using toluidine blue and Giemsa stains. The direct immunofluorscence was negative. A di...