Summary Eighteen patients with benign chronic bullous dermatosis of childhood were studied and the findings compared with those of dermatitis herpetiformis (twenty‐two cases) and bullous pemphigoid (five cases) beginning in childhood. The patients with benign chronic bullous dermatosis of childhood had a moderately pruritic bullous eruption with maximal involvement of the pelvic and perioral regions which tended to occur at an earlier age than either dermatitis herpetiformis or bullous pemphigoid. In contrast to dermatitis herpetiformis one‐third of the cases with benign chronic bullous dermaiosis of childhood went into remission. Evidence of coeliac disease was only found in the dermatitis herpetiformis group. Surprisingly both diseases shared HLA‐B8. A linear BMZ band of IgA was detected on direct immunofluorescence in all but one of the cases with benign chronic bullous dermatosis of childhood and circulating antibodies were detectable in two‐thirds. Routine histopathology was of little value in distinguishing between benign chronic bullous dermaiosis of childhood and dermatitis herpetiformis or bullous pemphigoid. Several paradoxes have yet to be explained before it can be determined whether benign chronic bullous dermatosis of childhood is a variant of dermatitis herpetiformis or linear IgA disease.

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Attempts were made to correlate virus excretion, joint symptoms and antibody response with human leukocyte antigens (HLA) in seronegative adult women given attenuated rubella vaccine. No association was shown between HLA antigens of the A and B loci and excretion of either high or low titres of RA27/3 vaccine among 26 volunteers. However, virus excretion was influenced by such factors as the time of day at which specimens were collected and the method of virus isolation. Our study therefore failed to confirm the hypothesis that certain persons are good 'spreaders' of rubella virus and that this capacity is associated with HLA-A1 and B8. The study of joint symptoms following vaccination with Cendehill, HPV77.DE-5, RA27/3 or To-336 vaccines showed no association between such symptoms and HLA antigens. However, joint symptoms occurred within 7 days of the onset of menstruation in 33 of 47 (70%) vaccinees (P less than 0.01) and it is therefore suggested that hormonal factors must play a role. No association between HLA antigens and haemagglutination inhibition (HAI) antibody titres, 8 weeks after vaccination with RA27/3, was found amongst 34 volunteers.

This study was undertaken to localize the enzyme cyclic 3',5'-adenosine monophosphatase in unstimulated human small lymphocytes. Cyclic AMP may be of importance in mediating lymphocyte stimulation, hence localization of the enzyme that is thought to modulate its intracellular concentration, cyclic AMPase, may point to the site of action of cyclic AMP in the cell. The histochemical technique employed was that of Shanta et al.6 Cyclic AMP substrate is degraded by the phosphodiesterase, then hydrolyzed, resulting in a lead phosphate precipitate at the site of enzyme action. This is subsequently visualized as lead sulfide. The enzyme was found to be localized on the nuclear membranes, which indicates that this is the site where cyclic AMP is destroyed. It does not necessarily mean that the nuclear membrane is the site where cyclic AMP is effective; this may be at some other point in the lymphocyte stimulation pathway, including the cell membrane, and the nuclear membrane may only be the site where cyclic AMP is degraded.