c-Jun, a component of the activating protein-1 transcription factor family, has been known to play an important role in the control of cell proliferation. It is also suspected to be a critical mediator of tumor promotion. However, investigations of c-Jun activation patterns in inflammatory and inflammatory transforming skin diseases have not been described so far. In this work, we show the c-Jun activation pattern in skin samples of patients with cutaneous lichen planus (LP), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), psoriasis and normal skin using an immunohistochemical approach and Western blot analysis. In addition, we studied the c-Jun activation pattern in histological samples of three patients in whom LP transformed to SCC. We show that c-Jun is rarely activated in normal skin and psoriasis in contrast to LP and SCC. Our results suggest that c-Jun activation in human skin is involved in (1) proliferation and (2) could potentially participate in the transformation of LP from an inflammatory to a carcinogenic state. Nevertheless, JNK1/2, an important c-Jun activating kinase, was not found to be differentially regulated in LP and SCC compared with normal skin.