Evidence for a structural abnormality of collagen VII in a patient with dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa inversa.

Recent studies indicate that in skin of patients with dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (EB) inversa, anchoring fibrils have an abnormal ultrastructure, but the major protein of these fibrils, collagen VII, is expressed and detectable with antibodies at the dermo-epidermal junction. For molecular characterization of this rare EB phenotype, skin biopsies from a patient with dystrophic EB inversa were investigated with indirect immunofluorescence, immunoelectron microscopy, and immunoblotting. Ultrastructural analysis of clinically uninvolved skin showed sublamina densa splitting. In unblistered areas, focal groups of anchoring fibrils that appeared loosely polymerized and without a distinct crossbanding pattern were observed. Indirect immunofluorescence staining with antibodies to collagen VII exhibited a linear fluorescence at the dermo-epidermal junction and at the roof of a spontaneous blister. Immunoelectron microscopy demonstrated staining of the poorly assembled anchoring fibrils, but no significant reaction in areas where no fibrillar structures could be discerned. In contrast to normal control skin, immunoblotting showed immunoreactive collagen VII in both epidermal and dermal extracts. Moreover, the dermis-associated collagen VII appeared as a distinct doubleband that contained the tissue form of collagen VII (250-300 kD) and an additional band with a slightly smaller molecular weight. In epidermal extracts one band, of the size of the tissue form, was detected. The studies on the present patient suggest that a structural abnormality of collagen VII that prevents its aggregation to stable dimers or polymerization to distinct anchoring fibrils may contribute to the etiopathogenesis of dystrophic EB inversa.