[The ultrastructural changes in the clinically unaffected skin of patients with pemphigus vulgaris].

Analysis of the results of light optic, immunofluorescent, and electron microscopic studies of biopsy specimens of intact skin of forearms and of the skin adjacent to lesions in 10 patients with untreated pemphigus vulgaris has lead the authors to a conclusion on the uniform pattern of ultrastructural changes in all sites of the epidermis in pemphigus patients. A combination of the signs of involvement of prickle and basal-cell structures (desmosomes and mitochondria) and of signs of cellular metabolic activation (euchromatism, active status of the nucleolus) anticipate the development of intra- and extracellular changes in pemphigus.