Increased in vitro cell-mediated immune response to staphylococcal antigens in atopic dermatitis

Atopic dermatitis patients have both a chronic colonization of their skin with Staphylococcus aureus and a delayed cutaneous hyporesponsiveness to intradermally injected staphylococcal antigens. It has not been established whether the cutaneous anergy merely reflects a specific lymphocyte hyporesponsiveness to staphylococcal antigens. Therefore the lymphocyte proliferative response to staphylococci was assessed in twelve patients with slight to severe atopic dermatitis and in eleven healthy subjects. Compared to the normal subjects, the patients showed significantly higher stimulation indices with S. aureus Wood 46 (p less than 0.05) and purified S. aureus cell walls (p less than 0.05). There was no significant correlation between the lymphocyte stimulation and the clinical severity of the disease. Therefore, chronic colonization of the skin of atopic dermatitis patients by S. aureus does not correlate with a defect in the cellular immune response to the bacteria but may rather stimulate such a response.