Procollagen localisation in normal, premalignant and malignant lesions of the epidermis

The distribution of procollagen in normal hyperplastic, preneoplastic or neoplastic human epidermal lesions has been analysed in indirect immunofluoresence tests with the antibodies to procollagen raised in sheep to extracted procollagen, synthesised by newborn rat skin explants in culture. These antiprocollagen antibodies produced indirect immunofluorescence staining only of the papillary dermis of human skin. We reacted serial dilutions of the antibody with each skin lesion and recorded the maximum dilution at which a positive reaction was observed. All lesions examined displayed essentially the same procollagen immunofluorescence pattern. The fluorescence was localised as a fibrillar/diffuse area just under the epidermis. In conditions in which the epidermis is highly convoluted, the fluorescent band was found to follow the pattern of the epidermis and to surround epidermal 'islands' in the deeper dermis. Our observations suggest that in the neoplastic lesions a new dermal topography, resembling the stratum papillare of normal human skin, is found in the deeper dermis surrounding the epidermal islands produced as the epidermal mass increases and invaginates further into the stroma. Malignant epidermal lesions were found to show a positive procollagen immunofluorescent staining at tenfold lower concentrations of the antibody than normal human skin in subepidermal regions.