Penicillamine-induced pemphigus. Immunoglobulin from this patient induces plasminogen activator synthesis by human epidermal cells in culture: mechanism for acantholysis in pemphigus.

The incubation of cultured epidermal cells with IgG obtained from a 56-year-old man with penicillamine-induced pemphigus resulted in an increase in extracellular and intracellular plasminogen activator. This suggests that penicillamine-induced pemphigus and spontaneously occurring pemphigus share common pathophysiologic processes in the induction of blister formation.