Histological and immunohistochemical comparison of granuloma faciale and eosinophilic angiocentric fibrosis

• Grant number: 12/21645-7
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: April 01, 2013
• End date: March 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Pathological Anatomy and Clinical Pathology
• Principal Investigator: Maria Letícia Cintra
• Grantee: Maria Letícia Cintra
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Médicas (FCM). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Albina Messias de Almeida Milani Altemani

Abstract

Granuloma faciale (GF) is an uncommon benign inflammatory skin disease with characteristic clinical and histologic features. Similar lesions of the upper respiratory tract, from a histomorphologic and clinical perspective, are termed eosinophilic angiocentric fibrosis (EAF), which are believed to represent a mucosal variant of granuloma faciale. Further evidence of their pathogenetic relationship is the reported occurrence of GF in patients with EAF. The histological hallmark of both diseases is the eosinophilic granulocytes- rich fibrosing small vessel vasculitis in a typical onionskin whirling pattern. We will use a battery of immunoperoxidase markers to study the subset of cells present in GF and EAF specimens. We also sight to determine whether the ratio of positive cells could be used to distinguish among the 2 conditions. Methods: Formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded sections from 20 cases of GF and 2 cases of EAF will be evaluated on H&E stained sections and with antibodies to CD4, CD8, CD56, CD68, CD20, and FOXp3. Positive reactions will be scored as a percentage of the entire mononuclear cell infiltrate. Additionally, CD34+, ICAM-1+, 1A4+, CD1a+, granulysin+, granzyme+ and perforin + cells will be studied by the mean of the proportion of stained cells in 5 "hot-spot" high-power fields (at 400x magnification). At the end of this study we intend to draw a morphological and molecular profile of GF and EAF in this sample. (AU)