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. 2025 Feb 14;317(1):412.
doi: 10.1007/s00403-025-03901-z.

Interleukin-13 in immunohistochemistry: implications for Grover disease, morphea, and immune checkpoint inhibitor-induced bullous pemphigoid

Italo Francesco Aromolo  1   2 , Francesca Laura Boggio  3 , Chiara Moltrasio  4 , Giuditta Pini  3 , Marco Brevi  3 , Maurizio Romagnuolo  4   5 , Carlo Alberto Maronese  6 , Angelo Valerio Marzano  6   4
Affiliations

Interleukin-13 in immunohistochemistry: implications for Grover disease, morphea, and immune checkpoint inhibitor-induced bullous pemphigoid

Italo Francesco Aromolo et al. Arch Dermatol Res. .

Abstract

Interleukin-13 (IL-13), a key T-helper 2 cytokine, has a central role in type 2 inflammation and is implicated in various skin disorders. This study investigated the IL-13 immunohistochemical expression in skin biopsies from patients with atopic dermatitis (AD), psoriasis vulgaris, morphea, Grover's disease, and immune checkpoint inhibitor-induced bullous pemphigoid (ICI-BP). AD biopsies showed the highest IL-13 expression (mean 27.4%), consistent with its established role in the pathogenesis. Psoriasis displayed moderate positivity (mean 8.62%), indicating IL-13's possible involvement in hybrid or phenotypic overlap forms. Minimal expression was detected in Grover's disease (1.8%) and ICI-BP (2.13%), while no positivity was observed in morphea. These findings highlight the diverse roles of IL-13 across skin disorders, with potential implications for targeted therapies.

Keywords: Atopic eczema; Dermatopathology; Immunobullous diseases; Immunotherapy; Psoriasis; Scleroderma.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethical approval: The study was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national), with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000, and with the Taipei Declaration. Patient consent: Written informed consent was obtained from all the patients included in the study. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

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