Jennifer Elisabeth Hundt

University of Lübeck · Lübeck Institute of Experimental Dermatology

We demonstrate large-area robotically assisted optical coherence tomography (LARA-OCT), utilizing a seven-degree-of-freedom robotic arm in conjunction with a 3.3 MHz swept-source OCT to raster scan samples of arbitrary shape. By combining multiple fields of view (FOV), LARA-OCT can probe a much larger area than conventional OCT. Also, nonplanar and...

Pemphigus foliaceus (PF) is an autoimmune skin blistering disease characterized by antidesmoglein-1 IgG production, with an endemic form (EPF) in Brazil. Genetic and epigenetic factors have been associated with EPF, but its etiology is still not fully understood. To evaluate the genetic association of histone (de)acetylation-related genes with EPF...

In dermatological practice, assessment of disease severity in inflammatory skin diseases typically relies on visual-based scoring. Since this method is prone to inter-observer variabilities, there is an unmet need for user-independent biomarkers for quantitative disease scoring and early treatment response detection. This work demonstrates a novel...

In dermatological practice, assessment of disease severity in inflammatory skin diseases typically relies on visual-based scoring. Since this method is prone to inter-observer variabilities, there is an unmet need for user-independent biomarkers for quantitative disease scoring and early treatment response detection. This work demonstrates a novel...

Detlef Zillikens, MD, director and chair of the Department of Dermatology at the University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany, died in September 2022, aged only 64. He dedicated his professional life to autoimmune blistering diseases (AIBDs) and built his department into one of the world’s leading centers for these diseases. Herein, his professional life...

The regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is associated with polymorphisms and the methylation degree of the glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1) and is potentially involved in the development of metabolic syndrome (MetS). In order to evaluate the association between MetS with the polymorphisms, methylation, and gene expressio...

Pemphigus is a life-threatening, chronic, autoimmune bullous disease affecting both the skin and the mucous membranes. Based on the mainstream concept that blister formation occurs upon binding of autoantibodies to their antigen proteins (desmoglein1, DSG1 and desmoglein3, DSG3), current therapies mostly aim to suppress the immune system. To avoid...

Background Systemic sclerosis is a rare connective tissue disorder characterized by a triad of inflammation, vasculopathy, and fibrosis. Vasculopathic disease manifestations occur early in disease development and include Raynaud’s phenomenon, acral ulcers, necrosis, and pulmonary arterial hypertension. Currently, acral vasculopathy is assessed in c...

Pemphigus is a severe autoimmune bullous disease of the skin and/or mucous membranes caused by autoantibodies that mainly target the adhesion proteins desmoglein (Dsg) 3 and/or Dsg1. Clinically, pemphigus is characterized by flaccid blistering, leading to severe water and electrolyte loss. Before the introduction of corticosteroid treatment, the di...

Pemphigus is a chronic autoimmune skin blistering disease, characterized by acantholysis and by the production of autoantibodies directed against the structural desmosomal proteins desmoglein 1 (DSG1) and/or DSG3. Model systems allow the identification and testing of new therapeutic targets. Here, we evaluated ultrastructural desmosomal morphology...

Epidermolysis bullosa acquisita (EBA) is a subepidermal autoimmune bullous disease caused by autoantibodies targeting type VII collagen (COL7). It is characterized by inflammation and subepidermal blistering mainly through immune complex (IC)-mediated activation of neutrophils. In experimental EBA, binding of neutrophils to ICs in the skin and indu...

Biologic therapies are increasingly used to treat chronic inflammatory skin diseases such as psoriasis and atopic dermatitis. In clinical practice, scores based on evaluation of objective and subjective symptoms are used to assess disease severity, leading to evaluation of treatment goals with clinical decisions on treatment initiation, switch to a...

The long search for the environmental trigger of the endemic pemphigus foliaceus (EPF, fogo selvagem) has not yet resulted in any tangible findings. Here, we searched for genetic associations and the differential expression of host genes involved in early viral infections and innate antiviral defense. Genetic variants could alter the structure, exp...

With newly rising coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases, important data gaps remain on (i) long-term dynamics of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection rates in fixed cohorts (ii) identification of risk factors, and (iii) establishment of effective surveillance strategies. By polymerase chain reaction and antibod...

Pemphigus is a group of blistering autoimmune diseases causing painful skin lesions, characterized by acantholysis and by the production of autoantibodies against, mainly, adhesion proteins. We reviewed the literature for molecules and/ or features involved in the 12 cell death pathways described by Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death, taking plac...

Several studies suggest a link between acute changes in inflammatory parameters due to an endotoxin or (psychological) stressor and the brain’s stress response. The extent to which basal circulating levels of inflammatory markers are associated with the brain’s stress response has been hardly investigated so far. In the present study, baseline plas...

The association between bullous pemphigoid (BP) and melanoma is yet to be investigated. We aimed to assess assess the bidirectional association between BP and melanoma and to delineate the epidemiological features of patients with both diagnoses. A population-based cohort study was performed comparing BP patients ( n = 3924) with age-, sex- and eth...

Infectious diseases represent one of the largest medical challenges worldwide. Bacterial infections, in particular, remain a pertinent health challenge and burden. Moreover, such infections increase over time due to the continuous use of various antibiotics without medical need, thus leading to several side effects and bacterial resistance. Our inn...

Pathomechanisms in IgA pemphigus are assumed to rely on Fc-dependent cellular activation by antigen-specific IgA autoantibodies, however, models for disease and more detailed pathophysiologic data are lacking. We here aimed to establish in vitro models of disease for IgA pemphigus, allowing to study effects of the interaction of anti-keratinocyte I...

Imaging techniques have evolved impressively lately, allowing whole new concepts like multimodal imaging, personal medicine, theranostic therapies, and molecular imaging to increase general awareness of possiblities of imaging to medicine field. Here, we have collected the selected (3D) imaging modalities and evaluated the recent findings on precli...

Background More than one year into the COVID-19 pandemic, important data gaps remain on longitudinal prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection at the population level and in defined risk groups, efficacy of specific lockdown measures, and on (cost-)effective surveillance. Methods The ELISA (Luebeck Longitudinal Investigation of SARS-CoV-2 Infection) study...

Background: While clustering of bullous pemphigoid (BP) with neuropsychiatric diseases is well-established, the clinical and immunological profile of BP patients with this comorbidity remains to be decisively determined. Objectives: To evaluate the burden of neurological and psychiatric comorbidities among patients with BP and to elucidate the c...

Several studies suggest a link between acute changes in inflammatory parameters due to an endotoxin or (psychological) stressor and the brain’s stress response. The extent to which basal circulating levels of inflammatory markers are associated with the brain’s stress response has been hardly investigated so far. In the present study, plasma levels...

The association of bullous pemphigoid (BP) with anxiety and anxiety-depression comorbidity is yet to be established. We aimed to evaluate the bidirectional association of BP with anxiety, depression, and anxiety-depression comorbidity, and to delineate the epidemiological features of patients with BP and the aforementioned psychiatric comorbidities...

COVID-19 infection caused by the newly discovered coronavirus severe acute respiratory distress syndrome virus-19 (SARS-CoV-2) has become a pandemic issue across the globe. There are currently many investigations taking place to look for specific, safe and potent anti-viral agents. Upon transmission and entry into the human body, SARS-CoV-2 trigger...

Background and Purpose Pemphigus is caused by autoantibodies against desmoglein (Dsg) 1, Dsg3, and/or non‐Dsg antigens. Pemphigus vulgaris (PV) is the most common manifestation of pemphigus, with painful erosions on mucous membranes. In most cases, blistering also occurs on the skin, leading to areas of extensive denudation. Despite improvements in...

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive, high-resolution imaging technique with a growing impact in dermatology. The principle of OCT is comparable to that of sonography, except that it uses infrared laser light instead of ultrasound waves. It has been clinically demonstrated that OCT is suitable for discriminating between different ty...

Zusammenfassung Die optische Kohärenztomographie (OCT) ist ein nichtinvasives, hochauflösendes Bildgebungsverfahren, das in der Dermatologie zunehmend an Bedeutung gewinnt. Das Prinzip der OCT ist mit dem der Sonographie vergleichbar, bei dem statt Ultraschallwellen allerdings Infrarotlaserstrahlung verwendet wird. Klinisch eignet sich die OCT nach...

In several autoimmune diseases, e.g., pemphigoid disease (PD), autoantibodies are the direct cause of pathology. Albeit key requirements for antibody-mediated diseases were identified, their interactions and exact temporal and spatial interactions remained elusive. The skin is easily accessible for imaging. Thus, we selected epidermolysis bullosa a...

Over the last few decades, cases of non‐melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) have risen to over three million cases every year worldwide. Members of the ERBB receptor family are important regulators of skin development and homeostasis and, when dysregulated, contribute to skin pathogenesis. In this study, we investigated leucine‐rich repeats and immunoglobu...

Mast cells (MCs) have long been mainly regarded as effector cells in IgE-associated allergic disorders with potential immunoregulatory roles. Located close to the allergen entry sites in the skin and mucosa, MCs can capture foreign substances such as allergens, toxins, or noxious substances and are exposed to the danger signals produced by epitheli...

bullous pemphigoid (BP) is an autoimmune blistering skin disease that predominantly occurs in the elderly, often accompanied by neurological disorders and increased mortality. Diagnosis of BP is established by clinical presentation, typical histology with subepidermal blisters and an inflammatory infiltrate containing eosinophils, positive direct i...

The transcription factor NF-κB controls key features of hair follicle (HF) development, but the role of NF-κB in adult HF cycle regulation remains obscure. Using NF-κB reporter mouse models, strong NF-κB activity was detected in the secondary hair germ (SHG) of late telogen and early anagen HFs, suggesting a potential role for NF-κB in HF stem/prog...

Epidermolysis bullosa acquisita (EBA) is a difficult-to-treat subepidermal autoimmune blistering skin disease (AIBD) with circulating and tissue-bound anti-type VII collagen antibodies. Different reports have indicated an increased concentration of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF) in the serum and blister fluid of patients with subepidermal AIBDs....

Laminins are the most abundant non-collagenous basement membrane (BM) components, composed of an α, β and γ chain. The laminin γ1 chain, encoded by LAMC1, is the most abundant γ chain. The main laminin isoforms in the dermo-epidermal junction (DEJ) are laminin-332, laminin-511 and laminin-211, the latter being restricted to the lower part of hair f...

Hair follicles (HFs) undergo life-long cyclical transformations, progressing through stages of rapid growth (anagen), regression (catagen), and relative "quiescence" (telogen). Since HF cycling abnormalities underlie many human hair growth disorders, the accurate classification of individual cycle stages within skin biopsies is clinically important...

For almost a quarter of a century, ex vivo studies of human scalp hair follicles (HFs) have permitted major advances in hair research, spanning diverse fields such as chronobiology, endocrinology, immunology, metabolism, mitochondrial biology, neurobiology, pharmacology, pigmentation and stem cell biology. Despite this, a comprehensive methodologic...

Spermidine (Spd), the prototypic polyamine, has been shown to be essential for hair follicle (HF) growth. However, Spd can be readily converted into other polyamines, and is physiologically unstable. Therefore, to assess its individual functions on HFs, we used the metabolically stable Spd analog N(1)-methylspermidine (N(1)-MeSpd). N(1)-MeSpd was c...

Unwanted hair growth and loss affect quality of life of millions world-wide; therefore better understanding of the (patho)physiology of human hair follicles (HFs), and thereby identification of novel therapeutic approaches, are important fields of experimental dermatology. Human hair follicles (HFs) express thyroid hormone receptors (TRs) and respond...

Many cell types of human skin express kappa opioid receptor (KOR), which is known to modulate multiple skin functions, including keratinocyte proliferation/differentiation (Tominaga et al., 2007; Cheng et al., 2008), and neurogenic inflammation. Reportedly, KOR activation down-regulates cytokine and chemokine release, as well as neuropeptide release...

Here, we studied how epithelial energy metabolism impacts overall skin development by selectively deleting intraepithelial mitochondrial DNA in mice by ablating a key maintenance factor (Tfam(EKO)), which induces loss of function of the electron transport chain (ETC). Quantitative (immuno)histomorphometry demonstrated that Tfam(EKO) mice showed sig...

Human hair follicles (HFs) express thyroid hormone receptors (TRs) and respond to their stimulation, both in vivo and in vitro. We have previously shown that thyroid hormones (THs) are potent regulators of human HFs biology. For example, thyroxine prolongs the growth phase of the hair cycle (anagen), and stimulates HF pigmentation and mitochondrial...

The endocannabinoid system (ECS) regulates multiple physiological processes, including cutaneous cell growth and differentiation. Here, we explored the effects of the major nonpsychotropic phytocannabinoid of Cannabis sativa, (-)-cannabidiol (CBD), on human sebaceous gland function and determined that CBD behaves as a highly effective sebostatic ag...

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) system is a key regulator of epithelial development and homeostasis. Its functions in the sebaceous gland (SG), however, remain poorly characterized. In this study, using a transgenic mouse line with tissue-specific and inducible expression of the EGFR ligand epigen, we showed that increased activation of...

The Journal of Investigative Dermatology publishes basic and clinical research in cutaneous biology and skin disease.

β1 integrin regulates multiple epithelial cell functions by connecting cells with the extracellular matrix (ECM). While β1 integrin-mediated signaling in murine epithelial stem cells is well-studied, its role in human adult epithelial progenitor cells (ePCs) in situ remains to be defined. Using microdissected, organ-cultured human scalp hair follic...

For over a century, frogs have been studied across various scientific fields, including physiology, embryology, neuroscience, (neuro)endocrinology, ecology, genetics, behavioural science, evolution, drug development, and conservation biology. In some cases, frog skin has proven very successful as a research model, for example aiding in the study of...

Abbreviations: HF, hair follicle; LDH, lactate dehydrogenase; LPP, lichem planopilaris; NHK, normal human keratinocyte; PPAR, peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor; TNF, tumor necrosis factor

Lichen planopilaris (LPP) is a chronic inflammatory disease of unknown pathogenesis that leads to permanent hair loss. Whilst destruction of epithelial hair follicle stem cells (eHFSCs) that reside in an immunologically protected niche of the HF epithelium, the bulge, is a likely key event in LPP pathogenesis, this remains to be demonstrated. We ha...

The skin of most mammals is characterised by the presence of sebaceous glands (SGs), whose predominant constituent cell population is sebocytes, that is, lipid-producing epithelial cells, which develop from the hair follicle. Besides holocrine sebum production (which contributes 90% of skin surface lipids), multiple additional SG functions have eme...

The hair follicle (HF) is a continuously remodelled mini-organ that cycles between growth (anagen), regression (catagen) and relative quiescence (telogen). Since the anagen-catagen transformation of micro-dissected human scalp HFs can be observed in organ culture permits the study of the unknown controls of autonomous, rhythmic tissue remodelling o...

There remains a critical need for new therapeutics that promote wound healing in patients suffering from chronic skin wounds. This is, in part, due to a shortage of simple, physiologically and clinically relevant test systems for investigating candidate agents. The skin of amphibians possesses a remarkable regenerative capacity, which remains insuf...

1-integrin connects epithelial cells with the extracellular matrix (ECM), thus regulating multiple cell functions. While β1-integrin-mediated signaling in murine epithelial stem cells is well-studied, its role in adult epithelial progenitor cells (ePCs) of human hair follicles (HFs) remains unknown. This was explored by β1-integrin silencing, by sp...

Background: Because many chronic inflammatory and allergic disorders are intimately linked to excessive mast cell (MC) numbers and activation, it is clinically important to understand the physiologic mechanisms preventing excess MC accumulation/degranulation in normal human tissues. Objective: Because endocannabinoids are increasingly recognized...

P-cadherin serves as a major topobiological cue in mammalian epithelium. In human hair follicles (HFs), it is prominently expressed in the inner hair matrix that harbors the HF pigmentary unit. However, the role of P-cadherin in normal human pigmentation remains unknown. Since patients with mutations in the gene that encodes P-cadherin show hypotri...

Abbreviations: DETC, dendritic epidermal T cell; FGF, fibroblast growth factor; HC, hair cycle; HF, hair follicle; IGF, insulin growth factor; KGF, keratinocyte growth factor; MHC, major histocompatibility complex; qRT–PCR, quantitative real-time reverse-transcriptase–PCR; TCR, T-cell receptor; WT, wild type

Background Although there are clinical reports of hair loss associated with levodopa and dopamine agonists, it is unclear whether dopamine exerts any direct effects on the human hair follicle (HF). Objectives Given the widespread use of dopamine agonists and antagonists in clinical medicine, we sought to determine whether dopamine exerts direct eff...