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An immunological study in patients with seborrhoeic dermatitis
Author(s) -
BERGBRANT I.M.,
JOHANSSON S.,
ROBBINS D.,
SCHEYNIUS A.,
FAERGEMANN J.,
SÖDERSTRÖM T.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
clinical and experimental dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.587
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1365-2230
pISSN - 0307-6938
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2230.1991.tb00395.x
Subject(s) - seborrhoeic dermatitis , dermatology , medicine , seborrheic dermatitis , immunology
Summary The humoral and cellular immune‐status was studied in 30 patients with seborrhoeic dermatititis. Increased frequencies of natural killer cells were found in 46% of patients. Furthermore, subnormal mitogen stimulation responses were demonstrated in 13 patients, whereas two individuals were found to have very high numbers of activated T lymphocytes in peripheral blood. Higher‐than‐normal total serum IgG and IgA was observed in 14 and 11 patients, respectively. For nine of 12 patients with skin lesions, dermal perivascular cell infiltrates were seen. The majority of the infiltrating cells reacted with anti‐CD4 antibodies. HLA‐DR‐expressing keratinocytes were found in two biopsies. The study suggests that patients with seborrhoeic dermatitis may have depressed T‐cell function. This could have a bearing on their susceptibility to the Pityrosporum ovale ‐associated dermatitis. The very high frequencies of activated T cells observed in the peripheral blood of two otherwise healthy seborrhoeic individuals suggests that intermittent systemic immune activation may occur.