抄録
Chemicals are able to cause various types of allergic disease. Those of greatest importance in the context of toxicology and occupational medicine are skin sensitization resulting in allergic contact dermatitis, and sensitization of the resporatory tract associated with asthma and rhinitis. There is a need to understand the mechanisms through which allergic sensitization to chemicals is acquired and, based on an appreciation of relevant cell;ular and molecular processes, to develop tools for accurate assessments of human health hazards and risks. The two forms of chemical allergy mentioned above provide toxicologists with different challenges. Allergic contact dermatitis is the commonest manifestation of immunotoxicity in humans, and it is clear that many hundreds of chemicals have the potential to cause skin sensitization. There are methods available that support the identification and characterization of skin sensitization hazards and the development of accurate risk assessments. Currently, however, those approaches are based on in vivo models and the challenge now is to develop robust and reliable alternative approaches that will eventually obviate the need for animals. Chemical respiratory allergy poses different problems because in this case there are not yet available widely accepted methods for hazard identification. In this presentation recent developments in chemical allergy will be described with reference to the relationship between clinical disease, cellular and molecular mechanisms, and approaches to toxicological evaluation.
