ABSTRACT
Bullous pemphigoid(BP) and herpes gestationis(HG) are subepidermal bullous diseases which show clinical and immunological similarities. Both diseases show immune deposits along the basement membrane zone and their autoantibodies bind a common antigenic site within the non-collagenous stretch of the 180 kDa BPAG2 ectodomain. Besides its association with pregnancy, HG has some characteristic features that distinguish it from BP. The serum of patients with HG often contains an IgG that avidly fixes complement, and showes IgG1 subclass predominance. We report here two cases of non-pregnant young women presenting clinical and histological features of bullous pemphigoid or herpes gestationis. The immunopathology, IgG subtyping and immunoblotting studies showed that the autoantibodies in the patients were the characteristic ones of herpes gestationis. The patients might be a subtype of BP that have characteristics of autoantibodies of HG patients.