Lack of type 1 sensitization to laundry detergent enzymes among consumers in the Philippines: results of a 2-year study in atopic subjects.

Background: Enzymes have been safely used in laundry products for many years. The risk of developing adverse responses to enzymes in laundry detergents among consumers in countries where hand laundry predominates is expected to be low.

Objectives: To understand how consumers in hand laundry markets used detergent products; to show that use of enzyme-containing detergents did not lead to sensitization in an atopic population with compromised skin; and to show that enzyme detergents did not have an adverse effect on skin condition.

The tumor promoter TPA enhances benzo[a]pyrene and benzo[a]pyrene diolepoxide mutagenesis in Big Blue mouse skin.

The Big Blue mouse was used to investigate the role of cell proliferation in mutation fixation in the mouse back skin model of carcinogenesis. Phorbol 12-myristate 13 acetate (TPA) was applied to the dorsum of Big Blue mice to manipulate cell proliferation, and benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) or BaP-diolepoxide (BPDE) was applied to produce premutagenic DNA damage. Mutations in the lacI transgene of skin DNA were measured.

Sites of UV-induced phosphorylation of the p34 subunit of replication protein A from HeLa cells.

Exposure of mammalian cells to UV radiation alters gene expression and cell cycle progression; some of these responses may ensure survival or serve as mutation-avoidance mechanisms, lessening the consequences of UV-induced DNA damage. We showed previously that UV irradiation increases phosphorylation of the p34 subunit of human replication protein A (RPA) and that this hyperphosphorylation correlated with loss of activity of the DNA replication complex. To characterize further the role of RPA hyperphosphorylation in the cellular response to UV irradiation and to determine which protein kinases might be involved, we identified by phosphopeptide analysis the sites phosphorylated in the p34 subunit of RPA (RPA-p34) from HeLa cells before and after exposure to 30 J/m2 UV light.

Induction of interleukin-6 in the epidermis of mice in response to tumor-promoting agents.

Recent reports imply that several epidermal cytokines have a functional role in the tumor promotion stage of the multistage carcinogenesis model in mouse dorsal skin. In this report we describe studies to assess the role of interleukin-6 (IL-6) in tumor promotion. Promoting, as well as non-promoting, hyperplastic agents were found to induce IL-6, as measured by mRNA expression.

Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) is expressed in mouse skin in response to tumor-promoting agents and modulates dermal inflammation and epidermal dark cell numbers.

In mouse dorsal skin multistage carcinogenesis models, tumor promotion can be mediated by chemical agents, but also by wounding or abrasion of the epidermis, suggesting that endogenous growth factors mediate this process. Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) is one such factor that has been reported to be produced by keratinocytes in vitro, and has been suggested both to stimulate keratinocyte proliferation, and also to be a chemoattractant for neutrophils and macrophages. In this study we examined the expression and function of GM-CSF in mouse skin following the application of tumor-promoting agents.