SAGE Journals Online
Advertisement
Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.

 

Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Advertisement

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Human & Experimental Toxicology
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Lindsay, C.
Right arrow Articles by Rice, P.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Lindsay, C.
Right arrow Articles by Rice, P.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?

Assessment of the biochemical effects of percutaneous exposure of sulphur mustard in an in vitro human skin system

CD Lindsay

Chemical and Biological Defence Establishment, Porton Down, Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP4 0JQ, UK

P. Rice

Chemical and Biological Defence Establishment, Porton Down, Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP4 0JQ, UK

1 Sulphur mustard (HD) is a potent chemical warfare agent which causes incapacitating blisters on human skin. There is no specific pretreatment nor therapy against this agent and the mechanism of dermo-epidermal cleavage is unclear. The aim of this study was to use a human skin explant system to determine the consequences of percuta neous exposure to HD.

2 Increased activities of serine proteases associated with blistering disorders in humans were detected from human skin explants after exposure to HD. The most consistent response and the highest protease activities measured were found for trypsin. This class of enzyme is therefore implicated in the dermo-epidermal separation which is associated with blistering in humans following exposure to HD.

3 An inflammatory response was observed in the skin explants exposed to HD. At low doses of HD it was characterised by the presence of neutrophils in the papillary dermis, culminating in the infiltration of the epidermis by these inflammatory cells at higher concen trations of HD. A variety of other histopathological changes in the explants was found such as focal dermo- epidermal separation, nuclear pyknosis and perinuclear vacuolation.

4 The study indicates that full thickness human skin explants can be used to investigate various aspects of the possible pathogenesis of HD-induced skin damage, in cluding the associated inflammatory response.

Key Words: sulphur mustard • human skin • proteases • trypsin • elastase • plasminogen activator

Human & Experimental Toxicology, Vol. 15, No. 3, 237-244 (1996)
DOI: 10.1177/096032719601500309
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Hum Exp ToxicolHome page
C. D Lindsay and J. L Hambrook
Diisopropylglutathione ester protects A549 cells from the cytotoxic effects of sulphur mustard
Human and Experimental Toxicology, November 1, 1998; 17(11): 606 - 612.
[Abstract] [PDF]


Advertisement