Autoantibodies to bullous pemphigoid antigen 180 induce dermal-epidermal separation in cryosections of human skin
Abstract
Bullous pemphigoid is a subepidermal autoimmune blistering disease associated with autoantibodies to the hemidesmosomal bullous pemphigoid antigens 180 and 230. Most sera from bullous pemphigoid patients recognize epitopes within the N-terminal NC16A portion of the bullous pemphigoid 180 ectodomain. Using cryosections of human skin, patients' sera were shown to generate dermal-epidermal separation when coincubated with leukocytes and complement from healthy volunteers; however, the specificity of pathogenic autoantibodies in bullous pemphigoid patients has not yet been elucidated. In this study, by the use of a modified version of the cryosection model, we show that sera from all of 13 bullous pemphigoid patients and from two rabbits, immunized against bullous pemphigoid 180 NC16A, induced dermal-epidermal separation. This finding was confirmed with the use of IgG purified from patients' sera, whereas sera and purified IgG from healthy controls were not pathogenic. The induction of subepidermal splits in this experimental model was shown to be dependent on the presence of neutrophils, but not complement. Interestingly, patients' autoantibodies affinity purified against a recombinant form of bullous pemphigoid 180 NC16A retained...Continue Reading
References
The extracellular domain of BPAG2 has a loop structure in the carboxy terminal flexible tail in vivo
Citations
Autoimmune bullous diseases the spectrum of infectious agent antibodies and review of the literature
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