Atopic dermatitis etiology

Imokawa, G., et al. 1991. Decreased level of ceramides in stratum corneum of atopic dermatitis An etiologic factor in atopic dry skin J Invest Dermatol 96 523. 

Murata, Y., Ogata, J., andHigaki, Y. Abnormal expression of sphingomyelin acylase in atopic dermatitis an etiologic factor for ceramide deficiency J. Invest. Dermatol. 106 1242-1249 (1996). 

Surgical intervention in atopic dermatitis has been associated with a relatively high rate of complication. In particular, the incidence of retinal detachment is relatively high. The etiology is not clear, but one study noted breaks in the pars plicata of the ciliary body in four eyes of three patients with atopic dermatitis. 

The role of both T and B lymphocytes in a variety of disease states beyond transplantation has become increasingly important in the past decade. This is especially true of those diseases frequently referred to as autoimmune in their etiology, such as rheumatoid arthritis, nephrotic syndrome, systemic lupus erythematosus, inflammatory bowel disease, and so on. In addition, several other major diseases are also known to have a component of T- or B-cell-mediated pathogenesis, for example, atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, and asthma. Until very recently, the mainstay of therapy for these diseases was the corticosteroids, which were often less than satisfactory in efficacy and often associated with undesirable side effects, especially in growing children and the elderly. Thus, the search for new agents with different mechanisms of action and which did not have the same adverse event profile as conventional corticosteroids led to the subsequent evaluation of drugs such as tacrolimus and sirolimus to treat several of these diseases. 

Table 8. Relative risk and etiologic fi action for subjects with atopic skin diathesis (ASD) in bakers with notified occupational contact dermatitis (n = 107) The frequency of ASD in seased bakers was 61% (modified according to Tacke et al. 1995)...

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