[Histochemical investigations in scleroderma (author's transl)].

The behavior of proteoglycanes was examined by histochemical methods in excised particles of skin from patients with progressive (n = 24) and circumscribed (n = 74) scleroderma. A method described by Ishikawa was principally used. An increase of the proteoglycanes was shown preferentially in the vascular and perivascular regions in progressive scleroderma and in the interfibrous space of the connective tissue in circumscribed scleroderma. While the vascular sclerosis is prominent from the clinical point of view in progressive scleroderma, the disease processes are found in collagen connective tissue of the corium in morphea.