ADHESION MOLECULE EXPRESSION IN ERYTHEMA NODOSUM-LIKE LESIONS IN BEHCETS-DISEASE - A HISTOPATHOLOGICAL AND IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL STUDY

Behcet's (BD) is a systemic inflammatory disease with histological evi dence for vasculitis. Leucocyte-leucocyte and leucocyte-endothelial ce ll interactions are critical in inflammatory reactions that are influe nced by the expression, activation and shedding of adhesion molecules. We investigated the expression of some adhesion molecules (E- and L-s electin, VLA-4, ICAM-1, PECAM-1, VCAM-1 and CD18 and CD11c chains of b eta-2 integrins) on endothelial and inflammatory cells by immunohistoc hemistry on cryostat sections of erythema nodosum lesions taken from 1 5 patients with BD and 12 patients with erythema nodosum of unknown ca use. Hematoxylin-eosin stained sections of all specimens were also ass essed. The major histopathological findings were perivascular mononucl ear cell infiltration and secondary vasculitic changes with no differe nce between the two groups (P>0.05). However, the frequency of thrombo phlebitis was higher in BD (P<0.001). Endothelial and inflammatory cel l adhesion molecule expression did not show any significant difference between groups (P>0.05). Although VCAM-1 expression and intensity on endothelial cells of BD patients seemed to be lower, this did not reac h statistical significance (P=0.056), We concluded that subcutaneous t hrombophlebitis is an important feature of erythema nodosum like lesio ns in BD, which is almost impossible to understand by physical examina tion alone. Colchicine, which is known to have some influence on adhes ion molecules, might have affected our results, as these showed no sig nificant difference regarding adhesion molecules between the two group s.