Loss of the platelet activating factor receptor in mice augments PMA-induced inflammation and cutaneous chemical carcinogenesis.

Although platelet-activating factor (PAF) is a well-known acute inflammatory mediator, little is known regarding the role of PAF in chronic inflammation. Phorbol esters are known to stimulate PAF production. Moreover, the ability of repeated applications of phorbol esters to induce a sustained inflammatory response is crucial to their tumorigenic activity.

Treatment outcomes of secondarily impetiginized pediatric atopic dermatitis lesions and the role of oral antibiotics.

Patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) are predisposed to infection with Staphylococcus aureus, which worsens their skin disease; it has been postulated that the lack of antimicrobial peptides due to aberrant allergic inflammation in skin with AD could mediate this enhanced bacterial susceptibility. We sought to characterize the amounts of S. aureus and biological products found in infected AD lesions and whether treatment with topical corticosteroids and oral cephalexin as the only antimicrobial improved outcomes.

Infected atopic dermatitis lesions contain pharmacologic amounts of lipoteichoic acid.

Background: Bacterial infection with Staphylococcus aureus is a known trigger for worsening of atopic dermatitis (AD); the exact mechanisms by which bacterial infection worsens dermatitis are unknown.

Objective: We sought to characterize the amounts of the biologically active bacterial lipoprotein lipoteichoic acid (LTA) in infected AD lesions.

Methods: Eighty-nine children with clinically impetiginized lesions of AD were enrolled in this study.