Acute prostatitis in middle-aged men: a prospective study.

BACKGROUND

Molluscum contagiosum is a common cutaneous tumour that is characterized by usually spontaneous involution and self-limited spreading in immunocompetent individuals.

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to investigate the apoptosis and the expression of cell-cycle proteins in molluscum contagiosum lesions.

METHODS

The terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate nick end labelling (TUNEL)-based apoptotic index and the expression of the cell-cycle proteins Ki-67, p53, p21WAF and Bcl-2 were investigated in molluscum contagiosum lesions obtained from the trunk of 20 immunocompetent patients and in normal skin samples from the trunk of six healthy volunteers.

RESULTS

Whereas molluscum contagiosum lesions displayed a TUNEL-based apoptotic index similar to that of normal skin, they exhibited an increased Ki-67 index, which was confined to the basal and first suprabasal layers (P < 0.001). Compared with normal non-sun-exposed skin, molluscum contagiosum lesions also exhibited increased p53 staining in basal cells (P < 0.01), increased p21WAF in suprabasal cells (P < 0.001) and loss of Bcl-2 expression.

CONCLUSIONS

These results indicate that molluscum contagiosum lesions exhibit an increased proliferation rate of keratinocytes, which is likely to be partially counteracted by accumulation of p53.