Lupoid Dermatosis, also known as Exfoliative Cutaneous Lupus Erythematosus is a monogenic (controlled by one gene) autosomal recessive disease that has been described in German Shorthaired Pointers and Vizslas. Clinical signs become apparent before one year of age. These clinical signs include skin lesions, lameness, scaling, erythema (reddening of the skin), erosions/ulcers, scarring, disfiguration, decreased quality of life, progresses to joint pain, oligospermia (low sperm count) in males which progressed to azoospermia (absence of sperm), irregular heat cycles in females. Dogs with this disease have dramatically shortened life expectancies and are generally humanely euthanized upon diagnosis.
Early in the disease process, the microscopic corneal layers are expanded by marked laminar orthokeratotic hyperkeratosis, and the epidermis will be moderately acanthotic with similar mild changes in the basal cell layer. As the disease progresses, the dermoepidermal junction will be obscured bys more pronounced vacuolar changes and lymphocytic infiltrates. Some individually necrotic keratinocytes may be located in the spinous layer.
Leeb T, Leuthard F, Jagannathan V, Kiener S, Letko A, Roosje P, Welle MM, Gailbreath KL, Cannon A, Linek M, Banovic F, Olivry T, White SD, Batcher K, Bannasch D, Minor KM, Mickelson JR, Hytönen MK, Lohi H, Mauldin EA, Casal ML. A Missense Variant Affecting the C-Terminal Tail of UNC93B1 in Dogs with Exfoliative Cutaneous Lupus Erythematosus (ECLE). Genes (Basel). 2020 Feb 3;11(2):159. doi: 10.3390/genes11020159. PMID: 32028618; PMCID: PMC7074252.
Wang P, Zangerl B, Werner P, Mauldin EA, Casal ML. Familial cutaneous lupus erythematosus (CLE) in the German shorthaired pointer maps to CFA18, a canine orthologue to human CLE. Immunogenetics. 2011 Apr;63(4):197-207. doi: 10.1007/s00251-010-0499-z. Epub 2010 Dec 4. PMID: 21132284; PMCID: PMC3230530.