Immunohistochemical demonstration of amyloid P component in skin of normal subjects and patients with cutaneous amyloidosis.

The presence of amyloid P component (AP) in dermal deposits of cutaneous amyloidosis was demonstrated by a direct immunofluorescence technique using an antibody to serum amyloid P component (SAP). AP was also shown, for the first time, to be a constituent of normal human skin. It was present at the periphery of dermal elastic tissue fibres, in basement membranes of dermal blood vessels and surrounding eccrine sweat glands but was absent from the dermo-epidermal basement membrane. The staining pattern in cutaneous amyloidosis was morphologically distinctive and readily distinguishable from staining of thickened vascular basement membranes in porphyria. Immunofluorescence with anti-SAP is simple and specific and may become the procedure of choice in the differential diagnosis of amyloidosis.