Introduction

Pemphigus is a group of autoimmune bullous diseases caused by antibodies directed against the desmosomal adhesion molecules desmoglein 1 and 3, which are required for intercellular adhesion of keratinocytes. Pentraxins are a group of proteins that function as pattern recognition molecules and also play a role in humoral innate immunity. Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is the prototype of the long pentraxins and has been shown to be increased in numerous autoimmune diseases.

Aim

To investigate whether PTX3 can be used as a marker of PV caused by autoimmunity and resulting in tissue injury.

Material and methods

The study included 30 patients who presented to the University Medical School Dermatology Department and were diagnosed with PV based on clinical, histological, and immunological findings. The control group included 30 healthy individuals. Human PTX3 concentration was measured with a commercially available ELISA kit, using a double antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Results

The 60 participants comprised 31 (52%) men and 29 (48%) women. The most common site of onset was mucosa + skin (n = 22; 73.3%) and a psychological pathology was present in 7 (23.3%) patients. Median PTX3 level was significantly higher in the PV group compared to the control group (p = 0.008). The ROC curve analysis indicated a significant area under curve (AUC) value for serum PTX3 level in the prediction of PV.

Conclusions

PTX3 was found to be increased in PV and PTX3 could be a useful indicator of disease activity in PV.