Hidradenitis suppurativa, also known as acne inversa, is a painful and incurable skin condition where hair follicles become inflamed, causing the formation of boils and nodules underneath the skin that can break open on the skin’s surface. As it’s thought to be more common among African Americans, Angel Byrd, a postdoc at Johns Hopkins University, and colleagues examined HS lesions from 16 African-American patients and found neutrophil extracellular traps, webs of white blood cell innards that are found in patients with autoimmune diseases.
The webs were more prominent with increasing disease severity. Additionally, blood samples showed B cell dysregulation and other signs of immune system activation. These results, published in Science Translational Medicine today (September 4),...
A.S. Byrd et al., “Neutrophil extracellular traps, B cells, and type 1 interferons contribute to immune dysregulation in hidradenitis suppurativa,” doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.aav5908, Sci Transl Med, 2019.
Emily Makowski is an intern at The Scientist. Email her at emakowski@the-scientist.com.
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