Abstract
Cultures for Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) were taken with food stamp agar (TGSE, Nissui) from unaffected and eczematous skin regions of 30 children (mean age±standard deviation=4.6±6.8 years, male:female=16:14) with atopic dermatitis. Skin regions of exsudative lesions and lichenification as affected sites were selected for collection of culture. We counted a number of colonies on the 10cm2 of the agar surface and determined the susceptibility of the bacteria against methicillin for assessment of MRSA. After the subculture in the liquid medium, we examined the production of coagulase and enterotoxins (SEs) and toxic shock syndrome toxin-1. Significantly more colonies were isolated from exsudative and lichenification lesions than from non-eczematous skins. There were no significant differences for other variables between affected and unaffected skins. The types of coagulase and SEs of S. aureus isolated from different skin sites were identical in 90% of the patients. It was suggested that the higher colonization density had an important roles in deterioration of atopic dermatitis. Since the amount of enterotoxins with superantigenic activity is correlated with the bacterial colonization density, enterotoxins may be involved in the pathogenesis of atopic dermatitis.
