Suprabasal acantholysis. A common biological feature of distinct inflammatory diseases.

Suprabasal acantholysis, a common feature of several inflammatory skin diseases, develops exclusively within the germinative cellular pool of the epidermis. The process induces repair mechanisms by proliferation of cells in the suprabasal layers in whatever conditions it occurs, except in pemphigus vulgaris. Dyskeratotic acantholytic cells do not synthesize histidine-rich keratohyaline. Acantholysis with dyskeratosis is a peculiar type of death that affects cells that are probably engaged principally in proliferation.