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Induction of new psoriasis sites was reported in only a small amount of psoriasis patients undergoing tattooing, despite the intuitive belief that tattoo trauma might awaken the disease due to the isomorphic phenomenon of Koebner. In this case report, we discuss a patient who presented with a remarkable sparing of his three tattoo sites during a guttate psoriasis flare-up that was unrelated to tattooing. The spatial concordance of tattoo and psoriasis lesions was analyzed on clinical pictures of tattoo sites taken during the psoriasis episode. For the quantification of the spatial distribution of the psoriasis lesions, Voronoi diagrams were generated, and coefficients of variation and the two-sample t-test were employed to compare the distributions of Voronoi patch sizes in different settings. Compared to skin areas without tattoos, a tattoo introduced a higher variation in the sizes of the Voronoi patches centered around psoriasis lesions. Based on our findings, we would like to discuss the possible role of macrophages as the key cellular link in the complex pathophysiologic relationship between tattooing/tattoo and psoriasis. Taking into account the relationship of autophagy and psoriasis lesions, we propose the hypothesis that tattoos represent a "psoriasis-hostile" tissue environment pertained by a population of LAP active M2-polarized macrophages. Further clinical studies of the relationship of psoriasis lesions to the tattooed skin are needed and may provide important insights into the role of macrophages in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: IgG autoantibodies against the high‐affinity IgE receptor, FcɛRIα, contribute the pathogenesis of autoimmune chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU). However, it is not known whether such patients also exhibit IgM or IgA autoantibodies against FcɛRIα. To address this question we developed an ELISA to assess serum levels of IgG, IgM, and IgA autoantibodies against FcɛRIα and investigated whether their presence is linked to clinical features of CSU including the response to autologous serum skin testing (ASST). Methods: Serum samples of 35 CSU patients (25 ASST‐positive) and 52 healthy control individuals were analyzed using a newly developed competitive ELISA for IgG, IgM, and IgA autoantibodies to FcɛRIα. Results: One in four CSU patients (8/35, 24%) had elevated serum levels of IgG‐anti‐FcɛRIα compared with (3/52, 6%) healthy controls. More than half of patients had IgM (21/35, 60%) and IgA (20/35, 57%) vs (3/52, 5%) each in healthy controls. Elevated IgM, but not IgG or IgA, autoantibodies were significantly more frequent in ASST‐positive CSU patients (18/25, 72%) compared with ASSTnegative patients (3/10, 33%, P =.022). Also, elevated levels of IgM‐anti‐FcɛRIα, but not of IgG or IgA against FcɛRIα, were linked to low blood basophil (r =.414, P =.021) and eosinophil (r =.623, P <.001) counts. Conclusions: Increased serum levels of IgM‐anti‐FcɛRIα are common in patients with CSU and linked to features of autoimmune CSU. The role and relevance of autoantibodies to FcɛRIα in CSU can and should be further characterized in future studies, and our novel assay can help with this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pyoderma gangraenosum is an immune-mediated, inflammatory, neutrophilic dermatosis of unknown etiology, which represents one of the extraintestinal manifestations of inflammatory bowel disease. It is a rare disease that occurs in less than 1% of patients with inflammatory bowel disease and with the same ratio in patients with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Main observations: A 36-year-old woman was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis 6 years before admission to our dermatology department with an acute disseminated pyoderma gangraenosum with mucosal involvement, during a flare of ulcerative colitis. Disease progression was interrupted by intravenous administration of the tumor necrosis factor-α inhibitor infliximab at 5mg/kg at weeks 0, 2, and 6 (1st cycle) and every 8 weeks thereafter. Improvement of intestinal, skin and oral manifestations was evident already after the 1st cycle of treatment and has been maintained since (at least 16 months). Conclusions: This case report is one of very few on disseminated pyoderma gangraenosum with oral involvement complicating ulcerative colitis, where infliximab was shown to have a rapid efficacy on skin, mucosal and bowel symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of our work has been to investigate the mechanisms of gender-independent human skin ageing and examine the hypothesis of skin being an adequate model of global ageing. For this purpose, whole genome gene profiling was employed in sun-protected skin obtained from European Caucasian young and elderly females (mean age 26.76 ±4 years [n1 = 7] and 70.756±3.3 years [n2 = 4], respectively) and males (mean age 25.86±5.2 years [n3 = 6] and 76 ± 3.8 years [n4 = 7], respectively) using the Illumina array platform. Confirmation of gene regulation was performed by real-time RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry. 523 genes were significantly regulated in female skin and 401 genes in male skin for the chosen criteria. Of these, 183 genes exhibited increased and 340 decreased expression in females whereas 210 genes showed increased and 191 decreased expression in males with age. In total, 39 genes were common in the target lists of significant regulated genes in males and females. 35 of these genes showed increased (16) or decreased (19) expression independent of gender. Only 4 overlapping genes (OR52N2, F6FR1OP2, TUBAL3 and STK40) showed differential regulation with age. Interestingly, Wnt signalling pathway showed to be significantly downregulated in aged skin with decreased gene and protein expression for males and females, accordingly. In addition, several genes involved in central nervous system (CNS) ageing (f.i. APP, TAU) showed to be expressed in human skin and were significanlty regulated with age. In conclusion, our study provides biomarkers of endogenous human skin ageing in both genders and highlight the role of Wnt signalling in this process. Furthermore, our data give evidence that skin could be used as a good alternative to understand ageing of different tissues such as CNS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]