Morphological and immunological findings in 10 adult patients with atopic dermatitis

Immunological studies at either skin or peripheral blood levels were performed in 10 adult individuals (4 men, 6 women) (age ranging from 18 to 42 years; mean age 27.7 years) with chronic atopic dermatitis. All patients enrolled for this study had disease in a chronically active stage as shown by persistent local lesions, which were unaffected by increasing age and different treatments. Moreover, all of them exhibited high IgE serum levels and hypersensitivity to dermatophagoides, grass pollen, etc., as assessed by RAST. Perivascular leukocytic infiltrates with some eosinophils represented the mean feature in histological specimens. Furthermore, in some cases, they were very close to the epithelium. At the same time, unmunological studies on skin infiltrating cells displayed an increased frequency of T lymphocytes bearing helper/inducer phenotype and antigen presenting cells of dendritic lineage. Finally, with particular reference to non-specific immune response at peripheral blood level, an impairment of monocyte chemotaxis and polymorphonuclear cell functions was observed, while lymphocyte subset frequency fell within normal range.