High iron and low ascorbic acid concentrations in the dermis of atopic dermatitis patients.

Background: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease in which reactive oxygen species (ROS) may be involved. Iron catalyses ROS formation and ascorbic acid (AA) scavenges these species.

Objective: The aim of this work was to determine iron and AA levels in AD patients' dermis and to compare their concentrations with those of healthy volunteers' dermis.

Methods: Five AD patients and 5 healthy subjects (controls) were enrolled in this study. Iron and AA were collected from human dermis by microdialysis and assessed by atomic absorption spectrometry and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, respectively.

Results: The AD dermis demonstrated higher iron concentrations (44.3 +/- 4.6 microg/l) compared to controls (21.8 +/- 1.2 microg/l) as well as a significantly lower concentration of AA (46.7 +/- 0.6 vs. 176.8 +/- 14.5 microg/ml, respectively).

Conclusion: These results suggest that iron and AA dermis levels could be indicators of inflammatory tissues and might be implicated in dermatological diseases such as AD.