Interest of Dosage of Anti-PB230, Anti-PB180 and Cytokines for Monitoring of Patients Suffering From Bullous Pemphigoid

Bullous pemphigoid is the most common subepidermal autoimmune blistering disease of the skin in European countries, including France.

Immunologically, BP is characterized by the production of autoantibodies directed against two major components of the hemidesmosome, BP180 and BP230.

The anti-BP180 autoantibody is detected in 79-93% of cases of bullous pemphigoid and its serum level at diagnosis have been correlated with disease activity. The anti-BP230 autoantibody is detected in 57%-63% of bullous pemphigoid cases and its score at diagnosis did not correlate with disease activity.

Up to now, no clinical or immunologic factors have been identified to predict outcome of patients with good or poor prognosis bullous pemphigoid as defined by long complete remission off therapy and recurrent disease requiring maintenance therapy for years. The usefulness of BP180 or BP230 ELISA scores for monitoring BP patients during treatment also remains unclear.