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Chronicity of Immune Abnormality in Atopic Dermatitis: Interacting Surface Between Environment and Immune System

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Chronic Inflammation

Abstract

Atopic dermatitis is a pruritic inflammatory skin disease that is greatly increasing worldwide. As the disease can be divided into remission (acute) and nonremission (chronic) groups, atopic dermatitis is an appropriate model for exploration of the mechanisms underlying the chronicity of inflammation. The nonremission group is characterised by the subsequent complication with systemic allergic sequelae referred to as ‘atopic march’. A central pathophysiology of atopic march has been revealed to be percutaneous sensitisation to environmental antigens, which results from memory Th2 cell induction. Characteristic pathophysiology of atopic dermatitis, including scratching, Filaggrin-null mutation, epidermal production of proinflammatory cytokines, such as Tslp and Il33, and induction of type2 innate lymphoid cells have been revealed to contribute to the maintenance and increment of memory Th2 cells, leading to the nonremission course of the disease. Recent rapid increment of the prevalence suggests that environmental factors make a significant contribution to the pathogenesis of atopic dermatitis. A number of recent studies have demonstrated a positive correlation between the prevalence of atopic dermatitis and air pollution levels. In addition, several studies also demonstrated that air pollutants contribute to the induction of atopic march and memory T-cell formation. These air pollutants appear to activate stress-responsive transcription factors, AhR and Nrf2, and these transcription factors elicit a response associated with inflammation. However, the exact mechanisms underlying the air- pollutant–induced chronicity of atopic dermatitis remain to be elucidated.

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Correspondence to Masayuki Yamamoto .

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© 2016 Springer Japan

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Hidaka, T., Kobayashi, E.H., Yamamoto, M. (2016). Chronicity of Immune Abnormality in Atopic Dermatitis: Interacting Surface Between Environment and Immune System. In: Miyasaka, M., Takatsu, K. (eds) Chronic Inflammation. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-56068-5_20

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