Autoimmune blistering skin diseases are characterized by autoantibodies directed against different constituents of human skin. Bullous pemphigoid and pemphigus are the two most frequent disorders within this group. Both of them are potentially life-threatening diseases and, if untreated, result in the loss of skin like in burn patients. Importantly, in these conditions, autoantibodies have been shown to reproduce the human disease when used in animal or ex vivo models. Therefore, autoimmune blistering skin diseases are considered as models for autoantibody-mediated diseases in general.

For the diagnosis of an autoimmune bullous skin disease, the detection of autoantibodies in patients’ skin and/or blood is a prerequisite. The current diagnostic algorithm involves a complicated, multistep cascade of different methods that is usually performed in specialized centres.

Recently  a biochip based on the expression of the recombinant target antigens on the cell surface of human cells (HEK293) were developed by EUROIMMUN. The biochip allows the simultaneous detection of auto antibodies against several autoimmune blistering diseases in a single assay.