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Irritants in combination with a synergistic or additive effect on the skin response: an overview of tandem irritation studies
Author(s) -
Kartono Francisca,
Maibach H. I.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
contact dermatitis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1600-0536
pISSN - 0105-1873
DOI - 10.1111/j.0105-1873.2006.00792.x
Subject(s) - transepidermal water loss , irritation , skin irritation , dermatology , irritant contact dermatitis , skin barrier , chemistry , contact dermatitis , medicine , allergy , pathology , immunology , stratum corneum
Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) has often been chosen as a model for irritant contact dermatitis (ICD) to study the effect of irritants in combination (1–14). Recently ‘tandem’, or sequential, exposures with SLS have been performed to study the mechanism of skin barrier impairment in ICD (1–6, 15). The assessment of reactions have been documented with visual scoring, transepidermal water loss (TEWL), skin colour reflectance measurements, skin blood flow; among which TEWL has been noted as the most sensitive value (16). The matched control groups were treated with either a single exposure to a single irritant or in tandem with the same irritant repeatedly. Synergistic and additive effects have been reported for various tandem pairs of irritants, however, the mechanism for both remains unclear. The results of tandem irritation studies were evaluated to define and investigate the responses produced and deduce a possible mechanism of action. Clinical ramifications, albeit complex, are discussed.