Advanced glycation end product (AGE)-immunoreactive materials in chronic prurigo patients receiving a long-standing haemodialysis.

We report two patients with chronic prurigo who suffered from chronic renal failure and were treated by haemodialysis. Histological examination of pruritic nodules revealed that the papillary dermis of the lesional skin was eosinophilic and amorphous, and free from dermal cell infiltration. Immunohistochemical study demonstrated that advanced glycation end product (AGE)-immunoreactive materials accumulated in the papillary dermis of the lesional skin. This immunohistochemical finding was never observed in the nonlesional skin adjacent to prurigo nodules of the present cases, and renal disease-free prurigo skin (n = 6) and nonprurigo skin of haemodialysis patients (n = 3). AGE-modified materials in the papillary dermis may be related to the pathogenesis of prurigo nodules in the haemodialysis patients.