Untersuchung menschlicher Hautlymphe : Unterscheiden sich irritative und allergische Kontaktdermatitiden bezüglich ihres Zytokinmusters ?

The collection of human afferent skin lymph gives insight into local pathomechanisms as well as signal transmission in skin disorders. Since epidermal and inflammatory cells have the capacity to produce different cytokines, the determination of lymph cytokine profiles in the course.of irritant and allergic contact dermatitis might provide a differentiation marker. In the present study we cannulated on the lower leg of 11 healthy volunteers a superficial peripheral lymph vessel draining the skin of the upper and medial part of the foot. Two days later, either an irritant or allergic (induction and elicitation) skin reaction was induced in the drained skin area. The lymph was collected twice daily and the levels of IL-1α, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-a were measured using commercially available ELISA kits. There were no differences in the cytokine pattern between irritant and allergic contact dermatitis. The measured cytokines, with the exception of IL-4 ( which demonstrated no increase), demonstrated in both types of contact dermatitis an at least three-fold increase. These data demonstrate that in human skin lymph the IL-1α-, IL-2-, IL-6-, IL-8-, and TNF-α-profiles do not discriminate between irritant and allergic contact dermatitis.