Chronic idiopathic urticaria: infiltrating cells and related cytokines in autologous serum-induced wheals.

The term chronic autoimmune urticaria (CAIU) is used for chronic urticaria in subjects who present a whealing response to the intradermal injection of autologous serum, suggesting the presence of pathogenic antibody activities. In this study, we examined 28 chronic urticaria subjects with positive autologous serum skin test (ASST), all of whom presented autologous serum-induced lesions at different evolutive stages. Punch biopsies were taken from lesional skin of six subjects at 10', eight subjects at 30', six subjects at 60', and four subjects each at 24 and 48 h.

Cytokine profile and supposed contribution to scarring in cicatricial pemphigoid.

Background: The progressive scarring observed in cicatricial pemphigoid (CP) is still partially unexplained but recently the release of soluble fibrogenic factors by inflammatory infiltrating cells has been considered as pathogenically relevant. In the present study we evaluated the expression of mRNA for IL-4, IL-5, TGF-beta1, IFN-gamma in CP in comparison to bullous pemphigoid (BP) patients, investigating the role of cytokine profile as possible cause of the different disease evolution.

Methods: Biopsies from patients with oral (n = 10), preputial (n = 3) and cutaneous (n = 1) CP were studied by in situ hybridisation performing a new amplification system based on biotinyl-tyramide.

Serum eosinophil cationic protein, myeloperoxidase, tryptase, eotaxin and Th2-L-like cytokines in Dermatitis herpetiformis.

Background: Dermatitis herpetiformis (DH) is a subepidermal bullous disease characterized by a neutrophilic and eosinophilic infiltrate, together with activated lymphocytes that show preferential polarization towards the Th2-like phenotype. To date, the role of neither soluble mediators, such as cytokines, nor serum levels of myeloperoxidase (MPO), eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) and tryptase (TRY) have been studied in the peripheral blood of DH. In this study we investigated 40 DH subjects for possible alterations in MPO, ECP, TRY, eotaxin, interleukin (IL) 4 and IL-5 concentrations to evaluate the role of neutrophils, eosinophils and mast cells in the induction of skin lesions.