title: Relationship between 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene elicitation responses and individual irritant threshold.
abstract: Contact dermatitis shows significant interindividual variation. We studied the relationship between an individual's irritant threshold and the elicitation of experimentally induced allergic sensitization. The results suggest that there is an association between reactivity to an irritant and the likelihood of positive elicitation reactions to lower hapten concentrations. This novel finding would be compatible with the proposal that contact allergy is best explained using a danger model with cutaneous irritancy determining sensitization. However, the enhanced allergic reactivity of individuals with a lower irritant threshold was not apparent on visual inspection, suggesting that the determinants of skin reactivity to haptens are multifactorial.
authors.affiliation: St John's Institute of Dermatology, St Thomas' Hospital, London, UK.
authors.forename: H R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Young
authors.forename: D B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Basketter
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: McFadden
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001132:Arm; D002081:Buttocks; D017449:Dermatitis, Allergic Contact / Q000209:etiology / Q000276:immunology*; D017453:Dermatitis, Irritant / Q000150:complications / Q000276:immunology; D004137:Dinitrochlorobenzene / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007509:Irritants / Q000009:adverse effects*; D008297:Male; D012882:Skin Tests / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D004137:Dinitrochlorobenzene; D007509:Irritants