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High iron and low ascorbic acid concentrations in the dermis of atopic dermatitis patients
Nathalie Leveque1, Sophie Robin, Patrice Muret
1Laboratoire d'Ingénierie et de Biologie Cutanées, Faculté de Médecine et de Pharmacie, Place Saint Jacques, Besançon, France.
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.
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