The "drumhead" graft repair of deep nasal alar defects.

Background: Extirpation of tumors on the perialar region often results in deep surgical defects. The nares and internal nasal valves are supported not just by alar cartilage, but also by the suspension effect of the overlying skin and subcutaneous tissue. Surgical loss of tissue may result in inward collapse of the nasal vestibule with resultant difficulty in breathing.

Diffuse dermal angiomatosis.

Diffuse dermal angiomatosis (DDA) is an acquired, benign vascular proliferation characterized clinically by poorly circumscribed, violaceous, livedoid plaques with frequent ulceration. Histologically, a diffuse interstitial proliferation of CD31-positive endothelial cells is present within the papillary and reticular dermis. Endothelial atypia, atypical mitoses, and vasculitis are lacking.

Bullous Sweet's syndrome in congenital neutropenia: association with pegfilgrastim.

Sweet's syndrome is an acute febrile neutrophilic dermatosis marked by attacks of painful, plaque-forming inflammatory papules accompanied by fever, arthralgias, peripheral leukocytosis, a diffuse dermal neutrophilic infiltrate, and prompt resolution of symptoms and lesions with glucocorticoid therapy. There are many reports of drug-induced Sweet's syndrome to various medications including all- trans -retinoic acid, carbamazepine, hydralazine, levonorgestrel/ethinyl estradiol, minocycline, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor. We describe the first known case of Sweet's syndrome induced by pegfilgrastim, a pegylated form of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor with unique pharmacologic properties that may induce Sweet's syndrome in patients with no history of neutrophilic dermatoses associated with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor therapy.

Epiregulin is more potent than EGF or TGFalpha in promoting in vitro wound closure due to enhanced ERK/MAPK activation.

Epiregulin (EPR) is a broad specificity EGF family member that activates ErbB1 and ErbB4 homodimers and all possible heterodimeric ErbB complexes. We have previously shown that topical EPR enhances the repair of murine excisional wounds. The purpose of this study was to determine whether EPR was more effective than EGF or TGFalpha in promoting in vitro wound closure and to compare the EPR induced signal transduction pathways with those activated by EGF and TGFalpha.

Topical epiregulin enhances repair of murine excisional wounds.

Epiregulin is a broad specificity epidermal growth factor family member that activates ErbB1 and ErbB4 homodimers and all possible heterodimeric ErbB complexes. Our objective was to determine whether topical epiregulin enhanced repair of murine excisional wounds. Wounds were treated on days 0-4 with either topical epiregulin (1 micro g/ml), epidermal growth factor (10 micro g/ml), or vehicle.

MMPs and TIMP-1 are differentially expressed between acute murine excisional and laser wounds.

Background And Objectives: Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their physiological inhibitors, the tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs) play significant roles in wound repair. The aim of this study was to determine whether MMP and TIMP-1 mRNA is differentially expressed between laser-created and excisional skin wounds.

Study Design/materials And Methods: Full-thickness wounds were created on the dorsal surface of Balb/c mice by either excision of the skin or with a CO2 laser.