The Journal of investigative dermatology
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J. Invest. Dermatol. · Aug 2015
Comparative StudyThe Immune Response to Skin Trauma Is Dependent on the Etiology of Injury in a Mouse Model of Burn and Excision.
Skin trauma has many different causes including incision, blunt force, and burn. All of these traumas trigger an immune response. However, it is currently unclear whether the immune response is specific to the etiology of the injury. ⋯ Acute cytokine induction was faster and different in profile to that of excision injury, leading to changes in systemic monocyte and neutrophil levels. Differences in the immune profile between burn and excision were also noted up to day 84 post injury, suggesting that the etiology of injury leads to sustained changes in the response. This may in part underlie clinical observations of differences in patient morbidity and mortality in response to different skin injury types.
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J. Invest. Dermatol. · Aug 2015
Comparative StudyDifferential Changes in the Peptidergic and the Non-Peptidergic Skin Innervation in Rat Models for Inflammation, Dry Skin Itch, and Dermatitis.
Skin innervation is a dynamic process that may lead to changes in nerve fiber density during pathological conditions. We have investigated changes in epidermal nerve fiber density in three different rat models that selectively produce chronic itch (the dry skin model), or itch and inflammation (the dermatitis model), or chronic inflammation without itch (the CFA model). In the epidermis, we identified peptidergic fibers-that is, immunoreactive (IR) for calcitonin gene-related peptide or substance P—and non-peptidergic fibers—that is, IR for P2X3. ⋯ In contrast, the density of epidermal non-peptidergic fibers was not increased, except for a small but significant increase in the dry skin model. Chronic inflammation showed an increased density of peptidergic fibers without itch, indicating that increased nerve fiber density is not invariably associated with itch. The finding that different types of skin pathology induced differential changes in nerve fiber density may be used as a diagnostic tool in humans, through skin biopsies, to identify different types of pathology and to monitor the effect of therapies.