Investigation of pathological mechanism of bullous pemphigoid and development of new treatment

We first found that the Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) levels in the serum and blister fluid were significantly elevated in BP patients and the serum MIF levels decreased in accordance with the improvement of BP. Liu et al have previously reported a murine model of BP, induced by a passive transfer of anti-mice BP180 NC16a antibodies. MIF transgenic (Tg) mice and MIF knockout (KO) mice were used to assess the potential role of MIF in the pathogenesis of BP in this murine model of BP. The blister formation in MIF TG mice showed no difference from that of WT mice after an injection of anti-mice BP180 NC16a antibodies. On the other hand, the blister formation in MIF KO mice markedly decreased in comparison with that of wild type mice after an injection of anti-mice BP180 NC16a antibodies. These results suggest that MIF might be involved in the pathogenesis of BP via both the inflammation of the epidermis and the infiltration of various cells, such as eosinophils