Effects of irritants in atopic dermatitis.

The skin of atopic dermatitis patients is considered to be specially irritable. This article presents information on the damaging effects of a series of irritants on frozen sections of human skin. In frozen sections of human skin, barrier function is eliminated, so that the pure toxic effect on epidermal structure can be studied. Without exception, the irritants showed more aggressive effects on skin samples from the atopic dermatitis patients than was the case with healthy skin. Formic acid caused only partial damage of epidermal structure in healthy skin, whereas in atopic dermatitis tissue, a total loss of structure was found.