ULTRASTRUCTURAL STUDIES OF EXPERIMENTAL VESICULATION .I. PAPAIN

[摘要] The effects of papain intracutaneously injected into guinea pigs was studied with both light and electron microscopy. Papain is capable of directly causing dermal-epidermal separation and acantholysis when injected intracutaneously. Junctional response, seen after a brief exposure to the enzyme, occurred in 2 principal patterns: in 1, separation occurred in the intermembrane space, and in the other pattern, separation occurred beneath the basement membrane. Acantholysis was seen after longer exposure to papain and was principally due to the symmetric cleavage of the desmosome caused presumably by the degradative effect of the enzyme on the pro-tein-polysaccharide matrix which joins together the various elements of the desmosome.