Atopic dermatitis

There’s a typical "career" for some allergic people, and it starts very early on the skin: babies develop atopic dermatitis, food allergies may follow, then comes asthma and later on hay fever. A group of scientists led by Ingo Marenholz and Young-Ae Lee at the MDC, working with colleagues from several institutions, has now identified seven genetic risk loci for this course of disease.

Researchers in Europe, Australia, Asia, and America have now discovered ten new risk loci for the chronic inflammatory skin disease eczema. Among the new candidate genes for eczema, the researchers came upon genes that are important for the innate immune system and for the development and function of T-cells which play an important role in specific immune responses. This emphasizes the importance of the immune system in the onset and progression of eczema. With the newly identified risk regions, a total of 31 risk regions for eczema are now known (Nature Genetics, doi:10.1038/ng3424)⃰ .

In collaboration with researchers from England, Ireland and Switzerland as well as the U.S., Japan and China, scientists in Kiel and Berlin have identified variants in four gene regions which strongly increase the risk for atopic dermatitis.

In a large genome-wide association study the researchers scanned the genomes of more than 9600 participants from Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. “Our findings cast new light on the pathogenesis of the disease,” said Professor Young-Ae Lee (Charité / MDC). The pediatrician-researcher and her collaborators hope the study will lead to a new approach to targeted therapy for this chronic skin disorder. (Nature Genetics doi: 10.1038/ng.347)*.

Atopic dermatitis is a common chronic inflammatory skin disease. Along with asthma and hay fever, atopic dermatitis is an important manifestation of atopy that is characterized by the tendency to form allergy antibodies (IgE) to environmental allergens.