Modified Plasma Cytokine Profile in Occupational Dermatitis

Background: Despite significant progress in the diagnosis of contact dermatitis, the identification by specific tests or biomarkers remains an unsolved issue, particularly when needed for the confirmation of the occupational origin of the disease. Objective: To characterize the plasma proteome profile in occupational dermatitis in workers of paint industry. Methods: The study has a case-control design, comparing exposed workers with and without occupational contact dermatitis, matched for age, gender, occupational history, and comorbidities. An immunological assay (Human XL Cytokine Array Kit – ARY022B, R&D Systems) was used to measure the plasma levels of 105 cytokines and chemokines in a pooled sample of the cases and a pooled sample of the controls. Results: A 1.5-fold increase was noticed for interleukin 3, interleukin 10, and leptin in cases, as compared to controls. Fibroblast growth factor-7 and growth/differentiation factor-15 showed a 1.4-fold increase, while interleukin 19, interleukin 31, and macrophage inflammatory protein 3a had only a 1.3- fold increase. The leukemia inhibitory factor was the only plasma cytokine that showed a 1.3-fold decrease. All other cytokines had a variation of less than 1.2-fold between cases and controls. Conclusion: The recognition of the molecular signatures is very important for an accurate and indisputable diagnosis of occupational contact dermatitis. In workers from the paint industry, plasma levels of interleukins 3, 10, 13 and 19, fibroblast growth factor-7, and growth/differentiation factor-15, together with leukemia inducible factor, may differentiate subjects with contact dermatitis from those without skin lesions.