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- Title
Immunoperoxidase anti-keratin staining of epidermal and pilar cysts.
- Authors
Cotton, D. W. K.; Kirkham, N.; Young, B. J. J.
- Abstract
Epidermal and pilar cysts have been stained with anti-keratin antibodies raised from human hair and human callus. The staining properties of the two cysts are different and, in general, support the idea that they originate from epidermis and trichilemmal hair follicle layer respectively. The distinction between epidermal and pilar cysts is now well established (Leppard, 1980), as is their non-sebaceous origin. Clinically they have long been lumped together as ‘wens’ or ‘sebaceous cysts’, but Kligman's famous paper on ‘The Myth of the Sebaceous Cyst’ (Kligman, 1964), although not the first, was the final blow to the concept. Subsequently opinion seems to have settled to the idea that epidermal cysts are derived from normal epidermis, including that which extends down the infundibulum of hair follicles and sweat glands, and that pilar cysts arc derived from the trichilemmal layer of the hair follicle. This accounts for the alternative name for pilar cysts—trichilemmal cysts. These tumours are usually of little importance. Some are known to undergo malignant transformation but this is a rarity (Saida et al., 1983). Multiple epidermal cysts are a marker for Gardner's syndrome (Leppard, 1980). This is a diagnosis worth making, for without treatment 100% of these subjects may be expected to develop carcinoma of the colon. However, these structures are of interest in their own right since they pose, and consequently may help to resolve, many of the basic problems of the histogenesis of tumours. We have therefore studied a number of epidermal and pilar cysts with immunoperoxidase stains using two anti-keratin antibodies.
- Subjects
CYSTS (Pathology); EPIDERMIS; IMMUNOGLOBULINS; HAIR follicles; SWEAT glands; IMMUNOENZYME technique
- Publication
British Journal of Dermatology, 1984, Vol 111, Issue 1, p63
- ISSN
0007-0963
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1365-2133.1984.tb04017.x