Reviews and feature articleDoes “autoreactivity” play a role in atopic dermatitis?
Section snippets
Systemic review
We searched MEDLINE from inception to the end of December 2011 to address the following 3 questions: (1) What is the prevalence of autoreactivity in patients with eczema? (2) Is autoreactivity a marker of disease severity? (3) What is the evidence for a potential role of autoreactivity in AD pathogenesis? We included in vitro or in vivo original studies with subjects of all ages and ethnic groups that investigated the phenomenon of autoreactivity in the context of AD or eczema. Autoreactivity
How common is autoreactivity in patients with AD?
Thirty-one of 1408 studies were deemed suitable for inclusion in this systematic review, as shown in the study flow chart in Fig 1 and listed in the supplemental reference list (see references E1, E2, E3, E4, E5, E6, E7, E8, E9, E10, E11, E12, E13, E14, E15, E16, E17, E18, E19, E20, E21, E22, E23, E24, E25, E26, E27, E28, E29, E30, E31 in this article’s Online Repository at www.jacionline.org). Fourteen of these 31 articlesE1, E2, E3, E4, E5, E6, E7, E8, E9, E10, E11, E12, E13, E14 reported on
Main findings
Our review has systematically identified and appraised a significant body of evidence that suggests a potential role for autoreactivity in AD pathogenesis. The phenomenon of IgE autoreactivity in patients with AD suggests that it is a relatively specific phenomenon because no such association can be shown in healthy control subjects, atopic patients with mild respiratory diseases, or patients with other chronic inflammatory skin conditions. A significant proportion of patients with AD
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Disclosure of potential conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no relevant conflicts of interest.