ABSTRACT
Objective To evaluate the performance of anti-type Ⅶ collagen antibody detection using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in the auxiliary diagnosis of a case of epidermolysis bullosa acquisita (EBA),and to analyze its sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of EBA in large-scale studies by review of relevant literature.Methods Serum samples were collected from a patient with typical clinical,histological and immunological manifestations of EBA,4 healthy human controls,5 patients with bullous pemphigoid and 3 patients with pemphigus vulgaris.ELISA was performed to determine the serum levels of anti-type Ⅶ collagen antibodies.Literature regarding the diagnosis of EBA using ELISA was reviewed with a summary of inclusion criteria for patient enrollment,coating antigens,sensitivity and specificity.A comparison was carried out between ELISA and the other serological methods.Results Anti-type Ⅶ collagen antibodies were detected by ELISA in the serum of the patient with EBA (136 U/ml),but not in the other serum samples.The sensitivity and specificity of ELISA in the diagnosis of EBA differed in different studies,but in general,the accuracy of ELISA was higher than that of immunoblotting.Conclusion ELISA is a simple and convenient tool for the diagnosis of EBA with high accuracy.
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Objective To determine the extracellular enzymatic activity of common pathogens for onychomycosis, in the hope of finding virulence factors associated with the pathogenesis of onychomycosis. Methods Strains tested in this study included standard strains of common dermatophyte and non-dermatophyte fungi as well as clinical isolates of Trichophyton rubrum from patients with onychomycosis. All the tested strains were cultured in medium containing nail fragments at 25 ℃ for 10 to 21 days followed by the determination of the nail fragment-containing medium, a significant increase was observed in the activities of esterase, esterase lipase, N-acetyl-β-glucosaminidase and α-mannosidase in dermatophytes compared with non-dermatophytes (all P ＜ 0.05 ), as well as in the activity of N-acetyl-β-glucosaminidase in Trichophyton rubrum compared with the other tested species of fungi (all P ＜ 0.05). No significant difference was noted in the activity of extracellular enzymes, except for that of naphthol-AS-BI-phosphohydrolase, between the isolates of Trichophyton rubrum from patients with different ranges of scoring clinical index for onychomycosis (SCIO). Conclusions In specific conditions, the extracellular enzymatic activity of fungi isolated from patients with onychomycosis is associated with fungal species, and may have a certain influence on the manifestations of anychomycosis.
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Objective To analyze the gene expression of pathogenic factors in vaginal secretions of patients with vulvovaginal candidiasis by using Oligo chips. Methods RNA was extracted from vaginal secretions of 10 patients with vulvovaginal candidiasis and 3 asymptomatic carriers, and hybridized with oligonuscreened followed by a bioinformatic analysis. Results Comparing with the asymptomatic carriers, the patients showed a higher expression of 44 genes and lower expression of 17 genes. Of these differentially expressed (TLR) 4, HWP1, SAP2, SAP5, LIP4, EFG1 and CPH1 were highly expressed in more than 80% of the secretion samples from patients with an average ratio of 4.013, while LIP6 and WH11 were lowly expressed in more IFN-γ and TLR4 were associated with native immunity, HWP1 associated with hyphal adhesion and formation, SAP2, SAP5, LIP4 and LIP6 associated with extracellular hydrolysis, and EFG1, CPH1 and WH11 associated with phenotypic switching. Conclusions Both the host adaptive immunity deficiency and increased virulence of Candida species are involved in the pathogenesis of vulvovaginal candidiasis, and TLR4 possibly plays a certain role in the local immunity of patients with this entity.
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Two cases of atrophic dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP) are reported.The patients were a 16-year-old and a 24-year-old boy with a clinical course of 6 and 5 years respectively.The lesions began as well-marginated atrophic erythema,and subcutaneous nodules appeared gradually on the erythema.Histopathology showed atrophic or normal epidermis,wavy arrangement of tumor (spindle) cells in the superficial dermis which was aligned parallel to the epidermis,storiform arrangement of tumor cells in the lower dennis,and typical lacelike pattern of infiltration of subcutaneous fat tissue with tumor cells.Immunohistochemistry showed that the tumor cells stained positive for vimentin and CD34,but negative for S100 or CD 68.