Background: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease in which reactive oxygen species (ROS) may be involved. Iron catalyses ROS formation and ascorbic acid (AA) scavenges these species.
Objective: The aim of this work was to determine iron and AA levels in AD patients' dermis and to compare their concentrations with those of healthy volunteers' dermis.
Methods: Five AD patients and 5 healthy subjects (controls) were enrolled in this study. Iron and AA were collected from human dermis by microdialysis and assessed by atomic absorption spectrometry and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, respectively.
Results: The AD dermis demonstrated higher iron concentrations (44.3 +/- 4.6 microg/l) compared to controls (21.8 +/- 1.2 microg/l) as well as a significantly lower concentration of AA (46.7 +/- 0.6 vs. 176.8 +/- 14.5 microg/ml, respectively).
Conclusion: These results suggest that iron and AA dermis levels could be indicators of inflammatory tissues and might be implicated in dermatological diseases such as AD.
Copyright 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel