Pemphigus is an autoimmune blistering disease of the skin and mucous membranes. It is caused by autoantibodies directed against desmosomes, which are the principal adhesion structures between epidermal keratinocytes. Binding of autoantibodies leads to the destruction of desmosomes resulting in the loss of cell-cell adhesion (acantholysis) and epidermal blisters. The plasminogen activator system...

A clinical study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of three currently used treatment modalities for pemphigus. Seventy-two patients of pemphigus (pemphigus vulgaris and severe cases of pemphigus vegetans, pemphigus foliaceous and pemphigus erythematosus) were divided into three groups. Forty patients were treated with prednisolone, 15 with a combination of prednisolone plus azat...

A variety of clinical and histological presentations can accompany the evolution of malignant melanoma. Unusual cytological variants of malignant melanoma include balloon cell, signet ring cell, myxoid and other metaplastic changes. With the exception of a case of pemphigus-like changes associated with malignant melanoma in paraneoplastic pemphigus, acantholysis is not a common histopathologica...

Pemphigus foliaceus is a rare, superficial form of pemphigus. Due to acantholysis localised in the stratum corneum or within the upper spinous layer of the epidermis, patients suffer mainly from extensive sores, while blisters are rarely found. The antigen in this form of pemphigus is desmoglein 1. The basic therapy consists of corticosteroids and immunosuppression, but in doses lower than in c...

conclusions: prevalence of hsv1/2 in mucocutaneous biopsies from pemphigus patients is 2.5% and possibly hsv1/2 has no role in the pathogenesis of pemphigus lesions. but resistant cases to treatment might be suspected to hsv. results: ten patients (25%) had a history of orolabial herpes infection. the results of all samples were negative for hsv1 except one sample which showed the positive resu...

Background: Pemphigus vulgaris, the most common form of pemphigus, is due to the production of auto-antibodies directed against adhesion molecules (desmoglein 1 and 3) that belong to the cadherin family. B cell-activating factor of the TNF family (BAFF) and a proliferation-inducing ligand (APRIL) may play a significant role in autoimmune diseases such as pemphigus vulgaris. Only a few studies h...

Pemphigus vulgaris is a serious chronic mucocutaneous ailment. In recent decades advances in diagnostic and therapeutic measures have led to a significant decline in morbidity and mortality. However, with the advent of active and prolonged immunotherapy involving corticosteroids, there has been a rise in steroid-associated complications. This has led to significant concern globally over the sen...

We describe a 39-year-old woman with an apparent captopril-induced, contact mucosal-dominant pemphigus vulgaris and angioedema, who took captopril during a bout of arterial hypertension. This exposure suggests that captopril and pathophysiology of angioedema stimulated the development of pemphigus vulgaris, which was diagnosed using the novel, indirect immunofluorescence BIOCHIP mosaic, with th...

In this study, five cases of pemphigus vulgaris and two cases of pemphigus foliaceus were treated with cyclophosphamide pulse therapy associated with prednisone, resulting in the need for a smaller maintenance dose of prednisone. In three cases of pemphigus vulgaris and one case of pemphigus foliaceus, dexamethasone and cyclophosphamide pulse therapy associated with prednisone helped the lesion...

d-penicillamine is one of the disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (dmards). drug-induced pemphigus is not frequently associated with d-penicillamine, and to date, the number of reported cases is about a hundred. most reports of d-penicillamine-induced pemphigus vulgaris are in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. it has rarely been reported in patients not taking d-penicillamine. we report a ...