Modulation and Apoptosis of Neutrophil Granulocytes by Extracorporeal Photopheresis in the Treatment of Chronic Graft-Versus-Host Disease.

Chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) is a common side effect of allogeneic stem cell transplantation and a major cause of morbidity and mortality in affected patients. Especially skin, eyes and oral mucosa are affected. This can lead to pain and functional impairment.

Expectation-induced placebo responses fail to accelerate wound healing in healthy volunteers: results from a prospective controlled experimental trial.

Placebo responses have been shown to affect the symptomatology of skin diseases. However, expectation-induced placebo effects on wound healing processes have not been investigated yet. We analysed whether subjects' expectation of receiving an active drug accelerates the healing process of experimentally induced wounds.

Cognitive factors mediate placebo responses in patients with house dust mite allergy.

Background: Placebo effects have been reported in type I allergic reactions. However the neuropsychological mechanisms steering placebo responses in allergies are largely unknown. The study analyzed whether and to what extend a conditioned placebo response is affecting type I allergic reactions and whether this response can be reproduced at multiple occasions.

Chronic leg ulcers as a rare cause for the first diagnosis of epidermolysis bullosa dystrophica.

Chronic leg ulcers occur most frequently in the elderly population as a result of an underlying vascular disease especially chronic venous insufficiency. But it also occurs less commonly in younger people due to other aetiologies, for example, infections, vasculitis, neoplasia or genetic diseases. The following case report presents chronic leg ulcers as a rare cause for the first diagnosis of dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa.

Behavioural conditioning as the mediator of placebo responses in the immune system.

Current placebo research postulates that conditioning processes are one of the major mechanisms of the placebo response. Behaviourally conditioned changes in peripheral immune functions have been demonstrated in experimental animals, healthy subjects and patients. The physiological mechanisms responsible for this 'learned immune response' are not yet fully understood, but some relevant afferent and efferent pathways in the communication between the brain and the peripheral immune system have been identified.

Smoking and obesity are associated factors in acne inversa: results of a retrospective investigation in 100 patients.

Acne inversa is a chronic, recurring acneiform skin disease with inflammation of the follicular epithelium of the sebaceous glands and the terminal hair follicle. It primarily manifests in the intertriginous areas. So far, the aetiology of acne inversa is unknown.