title: Patients with allergic and irritant contact dermatitis are characterized by striking change of iron and oxidized glutathione status in nonlesional area of the skin.
abstract: To assess the consequences of oxidative stress in allergic and irritant contact dermatitis, we compared the iron level, unsaturated iron-binding capacity, total iron binding capacity, the percentage saturation of iron-binding capacity, the amount of diene conjugates as well as the amounts of total glutathione, reduced glutathione, oxidized glutathione, and the oxidized glutathione/reduced glutathione ratio in skin homogenate from lesional and nonlesional skin. Lesional skin samples were obtained from positive patch test sites to 5% NiSO4 in five subjects, and from chronic contact dermatitis lesions on the hands, which had exacerbated over 3--9 wk in six subjects. Contact dermatitis caused at least a 4-fold increase in the iron level in the lesional skin area compared with the nonlesional skin area (p < 0.02). The increase in the iron level depended on the duration of contact dermatitis and was accompanied by high unsaturated iron-binding capacity and total iron-binding capacity values in the positive patch test sites (p < 0.05), and by a high percentage saturation value in the chronic contact dermatitis lesions (p < 0.05). We found high indices for iron, total iron-binding capacity and diene conjugates in the apparently healthy skin of the patients with persistent contact dermatitis that significantly (p < 0.05) exceeded the corresponding values in the patients with only patch test reactions. In summary, we have succeeded in providing evidence that generalized oxidative damage of the skin occurs as a consequence of contact dermatitis in a restricted area.
authors.affiliation: Clinic of Dermatology, University of Tartu, Estonia. Sirje.Kaur@kliinikum.ee
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kaur
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zilmer
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Eisen
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kullisaar
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rehema
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Vihalemm
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017449:Dermatitis, Allergic Contact / Q000378:metabolism*; D017453:Dermatitis, Irritant / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D005978:Glutathione / Q000378:metabolism*; D019803:Glutathione Disulfide / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007501:Iron / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species; D012867:Skin / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species; D007501:Iron; D005978:Glutathione; D019803:Glutathione Disulfide