Antibodies against conjunctival basement membrane zone. Occurrence in cicatricial pemphigoid.

Antibodies against conjunctival basement membrane zone (BMZ) were found in the serum of six of 12 patients with cicatricial pemphigoid. The ability to detect antibodies correlated with the degree of clinical activity. Each of four patients with active manifestations of the disease was found to have antibodies against BMZ, while only two of the remaining eight patients in a less active stage of the disease demonstrated specific antibodies. Specific circulating serum antibodies are a manifestation of cicatricial pemphigoid, but such antibodies are more easily detected during active disease. Antibodies against BMZ are frequently observed in patients with bullous pemphigoid, a nonocular bullous disease in which circulating antibodies react with a specific skin antigen localized to the lamina lucida, a portion of the BMZ. Therefore, cicatricial pemphigoid and bullous pemphigoid may have a similar pathogenesis.