What can dogs bring to atopic dermatitis research?

Besides humans, dogs are the only animals that naturally develop skin lesions of atopic dermatitis (AD). In the last two decades, numerous studies have helped establish the close similarity between human and canine AD at the pathogenesis, clinical, epidemiological and therapeutic levels. The study of dogs with AD could potentially be very useful to human AD research because of the species' historical inbred selection that would permit breed-specific genetic, epidemiological or mechanistic studies. Clinical trials enrolling privately owned dogs are helpful for testing the validity of novel preventive or therapeutic interventions before these are used in human patients. Finally, skin lesions of AD can be provoked via environmental, systemic or epicutaneous allergen challenges in dogs that are spontaneously or experimentally sensitized to common dietary or environmental allergens. These experimental canine AD models have proven their utility to test the efficacy of novel treatment modalities in a preclinical setting. In conclusion, natural or experimental canine AD can provide researchers with a unique model to investigate genetic, epidemiological, mechanistic or treatment facets of the human disease. Due to the unique similarity of the disease in both species, the obtained information would very likely be translatable to human patients.