Ultraviolet-radiation suppresses cell-mediated immunity in healthy humans. It has been postulated that, in the short term, this immunosuppression prevents autoimmune responses to ultraviolet-radiation damaged skin. Patients with polymorphic light eruption (PLE) demonstrate abnormal responses to ultraviolet-radiation suggestive of an immune response to an ultraviolet-radiation-induced antigen. We investigated whether PLE patients (n = 22) were resistant to ultravlolet-radiation-induced immunosuppression compared to skin-type, aged-matched controls (n = 23). Groups of patients and controls (six subjects per group) received a single dose of solar-simulated ultraviolet-radiation of either 0, 0.6, 1 or 2 minimal erythema doses (MED). Erythema was quantified using a reflectance meter and all volunteers were sensitised on the irradiated site with dinitrochlorobenzene. Contact hypersensitivity responses (CHS) to dinitrochlorobenzene were quantified after challenge using ultrasound. Ultravlolet-radiation-induced erythema was comparable in patients and controls. CHS was comparable in unirradiated patients and controls. UVR-induced a dose-dependent suppression of CHS in all volunteers but patients were more resistant to immunosuppression after 1MED. Exposure to 1MED suppressed CHS by 78% in controls but induced less suppression in patients (44%, p < 0.01). Our data suggest that PLE patients have a flaw in their immunoregulatory response to ultraviolet-radiation it is only apparent over a narrow dose range around 1 MED.
CITATION STYLE
Van De Pas, C. B., Kelly, D. A., Seed, P. T., Young, A. R., Hawk, J. L. M., & Walker, S. L. (2004). Ultraviolet-Radiation-Induced Erythema and Suppression of Contact Hypersensitivity Responses in Patients with Polymorphic Light Eruption. Journal of Investigative Dermatology, 122(2), 295–299. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.0022-202X.2004.22201.x
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