Skin and allergy

Abstract

 Avoidance from allergens exposure is a basic approach for treatment of allergic diseases after onset, however, both primary and secondary prevention from them have not been verified by clinical studies. Especially, infants with inflamed skin such as atopic dermatitis are susceptible to food allergy when they are restricted from taking the targeted foods. Allergen avoidance via oral route is not effective to prevent infants with atopic dermatitis from being sensitized to allergens, since percutaneous sensitization occurs through their inflamed epidermis. Healthy skin protects us from invading of allergens outside of the body. Normal epidermis consists of basal layer, prickle cell layer, granular layer and horny layer. Epidermal skin barrier is composing from various substances such as natural moisturizing factors in a horny cell, intercellular lipid in horny layer, corneodesmosomes combining horny cells and tight junctions between granular cells. Cutaneous barrier function is not intact in the epidermis of a patient with atopic dermatitis. Severity of atopic dermatitis is associated with skin barrier dysfunction and allergen sensitization. An antigen presenting cell in normal skin acts as an immunotolerance inducer, while that in inflamed skin acts as an allergen sensitizer. Prevention of atopic dermatitis and early intervention for it may be effective to prevent allergen sensitization and allergic march.