Topical Antioxidants Mitigate Infrared Damage
Infrared A irradiation (IRA), which is currently marketed to facilitate fat reduction and skin rejuvenation, elicits signaling in human skin to increase matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1, which is thought to play an important role in the photoaging of human skin. Importantly, application of an antioxidant mixture including polyphenols and vitamins inhibited the induced MMP-1 expression in human skin following IRA treatment. These results are particularly compelling because Schroeder et al. performed the experiments in healthy human skin in vivo, whereas all previous work on IRA-induced signaling has been performed in cultured skin fibroblasts. See page 2491
Boosting Acne Antibodies
Inflammation in acne vulgaris lesions is likely induced by immune reactions to Propionibacterium acnes in the sebaceous follicles. Resistance of these organisms to antimicrobial agents has challenged the effectiveness of the most common treatment, antibiotic therapy. Nakatsuji and colleagues demonstrated that intranasal immunization of mice with heat-killed P. acnes yielded specific antibodies, suppressed bacterial progression, facilitated the resolution of inflammation, and neutralized P. acnes–induced proinflammatory cytokine production. This vaccine strategy may boost sufficient antibodies against P. acnes and ultimately result in suppressed inflammation, heralding this approach as a practical and effective treatment for acne vulgaris. See page 2451
Blame It on Traffic
The steady increase in the prevalence of childhood eczema in many developed countries led Lee and colleagues to investigate the role of environmental factors in the etiology of this disease. Clinical eczema symptoms from more than 300,000 school-aged Taiwanese children were analyzed in conjunction with air pollutant and climactic data from 55 monitoring stations. A positive association between eczema and traffic-related air pollutants, especially nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide, was revealed. Interestingly, these associations were most prominent in girls. Exposure to traffic-related pollutants may alter the susceptibility of children to allergens and contribute to the development of this inflammatory skin disease. See page 2412
Too Old to Heal?
Age-related declines in repair and regeneration coupled with chronic inflammation and bacterial infection have been indicted in the slow healing of chronic wounds such as chronic venous leg ulcers. Wall and colleagues demonstrated that chronic wound fibroblasts may alter this healing process, as these cells appeared older than healthy skin fibroblasts as a result of sustained oxidative stress at the wound site. In addition, these cells may have an impaired ability to generate an intact stromal address, which is needed to coordinate chemokines, cytokines, and cell-adhesion molecules to attract infiltrating productive leukocytes for wound healing. See page 2526
Classifying Albinism
Classical oculocutaneous albinism (OCA) results from mutations in one of four genes (TYR, OCA1; OCA2, OCA2; TYRP1, OCA3; or SLC45A2, OCA4). The prevalence of the different OCA disorders varies among populations. Because these subclasses are difficult to diagnose clinically, Hutton and Spritz analyzed the DNA sequence of these four genes in 121 Caucasian OCA patients. The majority of patients had OCA1 and not OCA2, despite historical accounts that OCA2 is most frequent among Caucasians. As expected, diverse gene mutations were identified; however, a relatively limited number of mutations accounted for the majority of mutant alleles. See page 2442
