A solitary scrotal lesion of isolated epidermolytic acanthoma was studied by optical microscopy. The lesion displayed typical granular degeneration. The tumor parenchyma comprised several foci extending deep in the cutis to the continuation of the invaginated epithelium. Serial sections showed the parenchyma was free from acrosyringium and epidermis proper. The findings with hematoxylin-eosin stain and Fontana-Masson stain indicated that the tumor had originated from portion B of the hair follicle.

Fifty‐four unrelated Japanese patients with psoriasis vulgaris were tissue typed using the Sixth International Histocompatibility Workshop antisera. Two control groups were included in this study: Thirty‐one pustulosis palmaris et plantaris and 17 seborrheic dermatitis as a disease control and 66 normal, healthy, unrelated Japanese as a reference. HLA‐A1 (P = 0.0065) from the A locus and HLA‐BW37 (P = 0.0164) from the B locus were found to occur with increased frequency in patients with psoriasis vulgaris. No significant difference in antigen frequencies in pustulosis palmaris et plantaris was found, however, HLA‐AW30 and/or AW31 and HLA‐B12 occurred with increased frequency in seborrheic dermatitits. No linkage between psoriasis and HLA was observed in eight families. Therefore our findings in Japanese do not confirm the previous observation made in Caucasians of an association between psoriasis vulgaris and HLA‐B13 or BW17.

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An autopsy case of pigmented dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (Bednaf tumor) with systemic metastasis is reported. No previous example of this tumor showing widespread metastasis has been reported in the literature. The patient, a 45 year old man, developed a tumor on the right upper arm. The tumor recurred twice and metastasized to other parts of the skin, lungs and brain during the 8‐year clinical course. The primary tumor contained melanin‐laden tumor cells and showed a storiform growth pattern. Autopsy confirmed multiple metastatic lesions in the skin, lungs, brain, thyroid, pancreas, stomach, small intestine and thigh muscles. The recurrent and metastatic tumors lacked both melanin production and the storiform arrangement, and instead revealed “fibro sarcomatous” change with a herring bone or interlacing pattern of growth. Acta Pathol Jpn 40: 935–940, 1990.

Characteristics of keratins of five carcinomas of sweat gland origin were immunohistochemically investigated with several antikeratin monoclonal antibodies with differing specificities. Specimens were obtained from two cases of mucinous carcinoma of the skin, two cases of classic type of eccrine adenocarcinoma, and a case of eccrine porocarcinoma. The tumor cells of mucinous carcinoma expressed only simple epithelial keratins. In a case of eccrine adenocarcinoma, simple epithelial keratin 19 was diffusely expressed. The expression of the other simple epithelial keratins was confined to the luminal cells, whereas the remaining tumor cells further expressed stratified epithelial keratins. Eccrine porocarcinoma and a second case of eccrine adenocarcinoma did not express simple epithelial keratins, although stratified epithelial keratins were diffusely expressed. These data suggest that carcinomas of sweat glands express various combinations of simple and stratified epithelial keratins. Development of additional data along these lines may help to further define their classification.