Photodynamic therapy with methyl aminolevulinate for prevention of new skin lesions in transplant recipients: a randomized study.

Background: Organ transplant recipients on long-term immunosuppressive therapy are at increased risk of non-melanoma skin lesions. Repeated field photodynamic therapy using topical methyl aminolevulinate (MAL) may have potential as a preventive treatment.

Methods: This open randomized, intrapatient, comparative, multicenter study included 81 transplant recipients with 889 lesions (90% actinic keratoses (AK)].

Skin infections in organ transplant recipients.

In contrast to the well-described high risk of skin cancer in organ transplant recipients, skin infections in these patients are not as well explored. Skin infections caused by viruses, bacteria or fungi represent a growing diagnostic and therapeutic challenge in the dermatological aftercare of organ transplant recipients. Differing immunosuppressive drugs and their variable dosage in chronologic sequence after transplantation probably influence the type and appearance of skin infections.

Extension of the typing in a general-primer-PCR reverse-line-blotting system to detect all 25 cutaneous beta human papillomaviruses.

beta-Papillomaviruses (PV) seem to be involved in the pathogenesis of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma and its early stage actinic keratosis. In this study, typing was extended of a previously described consensus primer-mediated beta- and gamma-cutaneous HPV PCR method followed by reverse-line-blotting (BGC-PCR/RLB) to detect all 25 known beta-PV and to examine their prevalence in actinic keratosis. The typing format of the BGC-PCR assay was extended by adding hybridization probes of six beta-PV (HPV 75, 76, 80, 92, 93, and 96) to the RLB system.

Current state of vitiligo therapy--evidence-based analysis of the literature.

Unlabelled: Vitiligo is a skin disease with a worldwide prevalence ranging from 0.5% to 4%. Conservative therapies include photochemotherapy, phototherapy with UVB radiation (broadband UVB 290-320 nm, narrow band UVB 311 nm), systemic steroids and pseudocatalase.

Identification of differentially expressed genes in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma by microarray expression profiling.

Background: Carcinogenesis is a multi-step process indicated by several genes up- or down-regulated during tumor progression. This study examined and identified differentially expressed genes in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC).

Results: Three different biopsies of 5 immunosuppressed organ-transplanted recipients each normal skin (all were pooled), actinic keratosis (AK) (two were pooled), and invasive SCC and additionally 5 normal skin tissues from immunocompetent patients were analyzed.