Oral lupus erythematosus: markers of immunologic injury

Tissue speciments were taken from three regions in a patient with oral progressive lupus erythematosus (LE): the tongue, the buccal mucosa and clinically uninvolved cutaneous tissue. They were subjected to immunocytochemical studies by use of markers. HLA-DR antigen expression on mucosal epithelial cells was found in association with a predominance of activated helper T-Cells in the lesional tissue. Langerhans cells (OKT-6) and B-cells (Leu-IO, B1 and B2) were nearly absent in the mucosal lesions. The presence of populations of macrophages (MY-4) in the lesional epithelium might suggest an important role for these cells, rather than for Langerhans cells, in the afferent limb of cellular immunity in this case of LE.