Atopic dermatitis is a highly complex, heterogenous, chronic inflammatory skin disease. It is characterised by a pruritic, erythematous rash with an unknown immunological mechanism. Even though many paediatric cases are temporary, atopic dermatitis is commonly the first stage of the atopic march and chronic, active disease. Up to 75% of atopic dermatitis patients claim that it is first manifested in their childhood.¹

Objectives

In a study, potential signalling nodes, that contribute to disease heterogeneity and progression as well as circulating inflammatory patterns in atopic dermatitis-affected children, were characterised and identified.¹
In another study, it was investigated whether specific skin biomarkers in stratum corneum tape strips collected at 2 months of age from infants with clinically normal skin are different in children who develop atopic dermatitis compared to children who do not develop it.²

Methods

IgE: Immunoglobulin E; NMF: Natural moisturising factor; PBMC: Peripheral blood mononuclear cell; SB: Sphingoid base; SCORAD: SCORing Atopic Dermatitis.

Results

CASP-8: Caspase-8; CD4: Clusters of differentiation 4; EASI: Eczema area and severity index; IL: Interleukin; MMP-10: Matrix remodelling proteins; NMF: Natural moisturizing factor; TARC/CCL17: Thymus and activation-regulated chemokine/ CC chemokine ligand 17; AD: Atopic Dermatitis; NMF: Natural moisturizing factor; SB: Sphingoid base; SCORAD: SCORing Atopic Dermatitis.

Figure 1: Visual representation of cytokine correlations to each other (thickness of connecting line) and to SCORAD (size of circle) across all time points of the study.¹

Adapted from: Engle SM, et al. Clin Exp Immunol. 2022.

CASP-8: Caspase-8; CCL19: Chemokine ligand 19; CD5: Clusters of differentiation 5; CXCL12: C-X-C motif chemokine 12; IL: Interleukin; Eotaxin-2: CC chemokine ligand 24; TNFRSF9: Tumour necrosis factor-receptor superfamily member 9; TRAIL: Tumour necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand; TRANCE: Tumour necrosis factor-related activation-induced cytokine; SCORAD: SCORing Atopic Dermatitis.
Purple colour denotes correlations ≥0.35. Dark blue colour denotes correlations ≤0.35.¹

Conclusions

SB: Sphingoid base; TARC/CCL17: Thymus and activation-regulated chemokine/CC chemokine ligand 17.