Interplay among oxidants, antioxidants, and cytokines in skin disorders: Present status and future considerations

Meital Portugal, Vivian Barak, Isaac Ginsburg, Ron Kohen*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

108 Scopus citations

Abstract

The pathogenicity of skin disorders involves a complexity of physiological, immunological, environmental, and genetic phenomena. This review focuses on cross-talks between two main agents, the oxidants and cytokines network, which have recently been found to play important roles in the pathophysiology of a large variety of skin disorders, including carcinogenesis, UVB irradiation damages, inflammatory processes, and a series of diseases such as, psoriasis, pyoderma gangrenosum, atopic dermatitis, irritant contact dermatitis, and bacterial skin infections. In particular the review discusses the question how an interplay between oxidants and cytokines might be beneficial in wound-healing and in therapeutic strategies in clinical settings. These involve topical applications and oral administration of antioxidant and inflammatory-cytokines-neutralizing antibodies. Monitoring cytokine expression in skin disorders (inflammatory versus anti-inflammatory, or Th1 versus Th2 types of cytokines) will definitely help to evaluate the severity of injury, its type, and its role in therapy. Furthermore, it is expected that future studies should explore the possible roles of the synergistic interactions between antioxidants and cytokines and their impact on the Th1/Th2 cytokine networks balances.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)412-422
Number of pages11
JournalBiomedicine and Pharmacotherapy
Volume61
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2007
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
M.P. is supported in part by a grant from Dead Sea Laboratories.

Keywords

  • Antioxidants
  • NF-κB
  • NOS
  • ROS-cytokines cross-talk
  • Redox state
  • Skin disorders

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