Progression of toxic epidermal necrolysis after tanning bed exposure.

Background: In addition to recreational tanning bed use, UV radiation exposures are sometimes sought to self-treat skin conditions. The ability of tanning bed radiation exposure to trigger toxic epidermal necrolysis has not been reported.

Observations: A young woman attempted to treat a self-limiting drug hypersensitivity reaction via tanning bed radiation exposure, which resulted in a systemic toxic epidermal necrolysis-like reaction.

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.

Involvement of P38 MAP kinase in the augmentation of UVB-mediated apoptosis via the epidermal platelet-activating factor receptor.

Platelet-activating factor (PAF) is a group of phosphocholines with various biological effects, which are mediated by the PAF receptor (PAF-R). Our previous studies have demonstrated that ultraviolet B radiation (UVB) is a potent stimulus for PAF production, and that the presence of the PAF-R on epithelial cells results in an augmentation of UVB-induced apoptosis. Inasmuch as PAF-R activation results in numerous signal transduction pathways, the present study was designed to characterize the signal transduction pathway responsible for PAF-R-mediated enhanced UVB-induced cytotoxicity.