Amano Hiroo, Negishi Izumi, Akiyama Hiroshi, Ishikawa Osamu
Department of Dermatology, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine, Maebashi, Gunma, Japan.
Neuropsychopharmacology. 2008 Feb;33(3):566-73. doi: 10.1038/sj.npp.1301435. Epub 2007 Apr 25.
Atopic dermatitis (AD) is one of the most common inflammatory diseases of the skin and is usually associated with a family history of atopic diathesis. It has been well established that many environmental or psychological factors aggravate AD. However, it is not clear whether psychological stress by itself can trigger AD. We examined the effect of psychological stress on the onset of AD, using an animal model, the NC/Nga mouse. The animals were exposed to the water avoidance stress (WAS) test to induce psychological stress. Additionally, we examined how corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) affected the development of AD induced by psychological stress. Under specific pathogen-free (SPF) conditions, NC/Nga mice did not develop AD-like skin lesions. In contrast, NC/Nga mice exposed to psychological stress developed AD-like skin lesions along with elevated levels of serum immunoglobulin E even when kept under SPF conditions. The AD-like skin lesions induced by WAS were completely blocked by pretreating the animals with CRF. Our data indicate that a psychological factor is capable of eliciting AD-like skin lesions in NC/Nga mice. It is possible that the inhibitory effect of CRF may be mediated by the functional modification of various cells that have CRF receptors.
特应性皮炎（AD）是最常见的皮肤炎症性疾病之一，通常与特应性素质家族史相关。许多环境或心理因素会加重AD，这一点已经得到充分证实。然而，心理压力本身是否会引发AD尚不清楚。我们使用NC/Nga小鼠这一动物模型，研究了心理压力对AD发病的影响。将动物暴露于避水应激（WAS）试验以诱导心理压力。此外，我们还研究了促肾上腺皮质激素释放因子（CRF）如何影响心理压力诱导的AD的发展。在特定病原体-free（SPF）条件下，NC/Nga小鼠不会出现AD样皮肤病变。相反，即使饲养在SPF条件下，暴露于心理压力的NC/Nga小鼠也会出现AD样皮肤病变，同时血清免疫球蛋白E水平升高。通过用CRF预处理动物，WAS诱导的AD样皮肤病变被完全阻断。我们的数据表明，心理因素能够在NC/Nga小鼠中引发AD样皮肤病变。CRF的抑制作用可能是通过对具有CRF受体的各种细胞的功能修饰来介导的。
