Enzyme histochemistry of the small intestine in inherited ichthyosis.

Enzyme histochemistry of biopsies from the small intestine of 5 patients with different forms of inherited ichthyosis and of 2 normal volunteers was performed. Two of the patients had ichthyosis vulgaris, two had non-bullous congenital ichthyosiform erythroderma and one had X-linked ichthyosis. The following enzymatic activities were examined: G6P-D, 6PG-D, NADPH2-TR, ALD-A, L-D, C-A, IC-D, S-D, M-D, NADH2-TR, ATP-AI, ATP-A II, ATP-A III, ATP-A IV, R5P-A, DHO-D, alphaGP-D, betaHOB-D, MAO, GL-D alphaGP-A I, alphaGP-A II, betaGP-A II, N.EST-A. No significant variations in the different enzymatic activities were found for the ichthyosis vulgaris and non-bullous C.I.E. cases. More pronounced variations were found in X-linked ichthyosis, with a decrease in C-A, IC-D, R5P-A, betaHOB-D, GL-D, alphaGP-A II and N.EST-A activity. Succinic dehydrogenase activity has been reported in the literature to be reduced in ichthyosis vulgaris and bullous C.I.E. However, the results obtained for our patients showed equal or higher reaction levels than in the controls.