Immunohistochemical analysis of the infiltrated cells in tinea capitis patients

Tinea capitis is a fungal infection of the skin and the hair with involvement of the hair shaft and the pilosebaceous unit. It may be the most common of all cutaneous mycoses in children. Tinea capitis can be inflammatory or noninflammatory. It is thought that humoral and cell-mediated immunities play a role in the formation of the clinical types of the disease. We studied twelve patients with acute inflammatory disease, four patients with chronic non-inflammatory disease, and one patient with a black-dot variant of tinea capitis. The composition of inflammatory infiltrates present in lesional skin was analyzed by antibodies to T cells (CD3) and B cells (CD20). Anti-CD3 revealed large numbers of T cells in twelve patients with acute, inflammatory dermatophytosis, whereas anti-CD20 revealed marked infiltrates of both B and T cells in all patients with chronic, non-inflammatory dermatophytosis. As a result, we thought that cell-mediated immunity might play a role in the acute, inflammatory type of tinea capitis and that humoral immunity might do so in the chronic, non-inflammatory type of tinea capitis.