Specific incorporation of penicillamine into the epidermis of mice: an autoradiographic study.

[3H]-D-penicillamine was injected intra-peritoneally in mice. The highest concentration of the drug was found in the skin, particularly in the epidermis, and a well-defined kinetic sequence of appearance in the epidermis was shown. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that penicillamine, by virtue of its chemical similarity to cysteine, can replace the latter during keratogenesis by a competition phenomenon, which could provoke acantholytic splitting both biochemically and immunologically.