Mucous membrane pemphigoid includes chronic autoimmune sub-epithelial blistering diseases that predominantly affect mucous membranes, with varying combinations of oral, ocular, cutaneous, genital, nasopharyngeal, oesophageal and laryngeal lesions. The case is reported of a man with multiple manifestations of mucous membrane pemphigoid. A 53-year-old male presented at our Department with a 4-yea...

BACKGROUND Bullous pemphigoid is the most common autoimmune blistering skin disease of the elderly. Because elderly people have low tolerance for standard regimens of oral corticosteroids, we studied whether highly potent topical corticosteroids could decrease mortality while controlling disease. METHODS A total of 341 patients with bullous pemphigoid were enrolled in a randomized, multicente...

Pemphigoid and pemphigus vulgaris (PV) are autoimmune diseases that cause potentially debilitating erosions and blistering of the skin and/or mucous membranes. In bullous pemphigoid (BP), autoantibodies target components of the basement membrane zone (BMZ), most importantly the hemidesmosomal proteins, BP180 and BP230. Research efforts have uncovered some of the complex mechanisms that cause th...

Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is a common pemphigoid disorder, which is localized in approximately 16-29% of cases. A small subset of localized BP cases is associated with prior radiation therapy, most commonly for breast carcinoma. We present a patient with an unusual presentation of localized BP after receiving partial accelerated breast irradiation (a type of brachytherapy that has a decreased amo...

Fractions of IgG from sera of patients with pemphigoid and pemphigus added to monolayer cultures of mouse epidermal cells resulted in a sparse distribution of cells. Direct immunofluorescence studies of these monolayers revealed epidermal cell surface antigens reacting with pemphigoid and pemphigus antibodies. We suggest that these antibodies may bind to epidermal cell surface antigenic molecul...

Dear Editor, Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is an autoimmune subepidermal blistering skin condition. It is characterised by the presence of immunoglobulin G (IgG) autoantibodies specifi c for the hemidesmosomal BP antigens BP230 (BPAg1) and BP 180 (BPAg2). Unlike pemphigus, it is not traditionally recognised as a paraneoplastic phenomenon. As BP becomes increasingly prevalent in our ageing population,...

Mucous membrane pemphigoid is a chronic inflammatory, bullous subepithelial auto-immune disease, with predominant involvement of the mucosal surfaces. Oral mucous membrane pemphigoid occurring in childhood is extremely rare. We describe a new case of this entity occurring in a 4-year-old girl who presented with desquamative gingivitis. Diagnosis was based on clinical presentation, histopatholog...

PURPOSE To understand the underlying mechanisms responsible for the easy removal and sloughing of corneal epithelium in vitamin A deficiency. METHODS An animal model of vitamin A deficiency, the vitamin A-deficient rat (A-rat), transmission electron microscopy, computer-assisted morphometric analysis and indirect immunofluorescence were used to study the adhesion of rat corneal epithelium to ...

Bullous Diseases Unit at the 2nd Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki was founded with the aim to provide the optimal diagnostic approach and treatment of patients with autoimmune bullous diseases (AΙBD). We processed all AIBD files of patients diagnosed from 2011 to 2014 in order to record all epidemiological data and therapeutic manipulations during ...

Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is an autoimmune subepidermal blistering disease seen primarily in elderly persons. It is characterized clinically by the development of tense bullae and by the presence of an antibasement membrane antibody. In BP, the antigens involved in the autoimmunity are epidermal basement membrane peptides BPAg1 and BPAg2. We have compared high resolution typing of major histocomp...