Summary
Plane warts were examined at the earliest phase of spontaneous involution using an electron microscopy. Macrophages outnumbered lymphocytes in invading the epidermis. Lymphocytes exhibited pseudopods on the surface which occasionally reached into the epidermal cells. The cell membranes of both macrophages and epidermal cells frequently disappeared on the contacting surface and on occasion part of the cytoplasm and even the nucleus of macrophages invaded the epidermal cells. The macrophages showed an independent partial loss of their cell membranes with a subsequent outpour of their contents. This ultrastructural feature indicates that in spontaneously regressing plane warts the depressed membrane stability of macrophages as observed in BCG and other-induced tumor cell destruction also occurs in the presence of lymphocytes. Therefore, the spontaneous involution may represen a rejection phenomenon.
Zusammenfassung
Plane Warzen in der frühesten klinischen Phase der spontanen Involution wurden elektronenmikroskopisch untersucht. Es wurde gezeigt, daß Makrophagen und Lymphocyten in die Epidermis einwandern und daß die Zahl der ersteren die der letzteren überschritt. Die Lymphocyten zeigten Pseudopodien an der Oberfläche und diese drangen zuweilen in die epidermischen Zellen ein. An der Berührungsfläche der Makrophagen und der epidermalen Zellen verschwanden häufig Membranen beider Zellen und gelegentlich wurde ein Teil des Cytoplasmas und auch des Nucleus der Makrophagen von den Zellen der Epidermis aufgenommen. Außerdem wurde ein davon unabhängiger partieller Verlust der Zellmembranen der Makrophagen beobachtet. Diese ultrastrukturellen Verhältnisse zeigen, daß in der spontan zurückgehenden planen Warze eine verringerte Stabilität der Makrophagenmembranen in Gegenwart von Lymphocyten sich entwickelt, wie sie in der durch BCG und anderen Ursachen zerstörten Tumorzelle beobachtet wird, und daß die spontane Involution ein Abstoßungs-Phänomen darstellen kann.
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Oguchi, M., Komura, J., Tagami, H. et al. Ultrastructural studies of spontaneously regressing plane warts. Macrophages attack verruca-epidermal cells. Arch Dermatol Res 270, 403–411 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00403784
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00403784