Ultrastructural findings in bullous pemphigoid.
In four bullous pemphigoid patients electron microscopic and direct immunofluorescence examinations were carried out on sections of the border of a blister, apparently normal skin surrounding the blister, apparently normal skin distant from the blister, and apparently normal skin subjected to the stimulus of a xenon lamp. The bullous pemphigoid blister was formed by cleavage of the basal cells away from the basal lamina which remained intact. The intercellular spaces were widened and the half-desmosomes reduced in number in the skin surrounding the blister. Xenon lamp irradiation produced a pattern similar to that of the skin surrounding the blister, but without immunoglobulins and complement fixed in vivo.
D001485:Basement Membrane / Q000473:pathology; D003896:Desmosomes / Q000473:pathology; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D007365:Intercellular Junctions / Q000473:pathology; D008027:Light; D012867:Skin / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D012872:Skin Diseases, Vesiculobullous / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology*; D014978:Xenon
D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D014978:Xenon