Glucocorticoids and the skin

ABSTRACT

Glucocorticoids are the most effective anti-inflammatory agents currently available, but a variety of adverse effects limit their clinical usefulness. This work explores further two facets of their interaction between glucocorticoids and the skin, with the aim of identifying means of reducing glucocorticoid toxicity. (a) Metabolism of glucocorticoids by skin Human skin is active in the terminal metabolism of corticol to cortisone, but the biological implications of this process in skin are uncertain. BEcause there are technical difficulties in dealing with human skin, an animal model, the nude mouse, has been evaluated for its suitability to the study of the metabolism of corticosterone to IIB-dehydrocorticosterone (the homologous reaction in rodents of cortisol to cortisone conversion in man); a process mediated by IIB-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase. (b) Skin vasoconstrictor response (blanching) to topical glucocorticoids Glucocorticoids applied topically to human skin produce vasoconstriction in dermal vessels, the degree of which correlates closely with the potency and clinically efficacy of these compounds (AU)