Freeze-fracturing of oral epithelial cells in pemphigus.

Biopsies from the oral mucosa of three patients (two with pemphigus vulgaris and one with pemphigus erythematosus) were taken for both freeze-fracturing and thin-sectioning studies. Oral mucosa from a clinically healthy volunteer was used as control. The samples collected from both the involved and uninvolved oral mucosa of pemphigus patients showed widened intercellular spaces and fewer than normal desmosomes. Thin sections showed a random distribution of tonofilaments. However, in freeze-fracture replicas tonofilaments were arranged in thick bundles with a slightly coiled orientation. In freeze-fracture replicas of samples from a pemphigus patient in remission no difference was found in the number of particles on both fracture faces.