Skin Manifestations of Food Allergy
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Skin Manifestations of Food Allergy Wesley Burks, MD ABSTRACT. The pediatrician is faced with evaluating who had improvement in their atopic dermatitis a panoply of skin rashes, a subset of which may be (AD) after avoiding specific foods in their diet. Other induced by food allergy. Acute urticaria is a common reports that followed were in conflict, and this led to manifestation of an allergic skin response to food, but the controversy on the role of specific food allergens food is rarely a cause of chronic urticaria. Approximately in AD.4 This controversy has continued into the 21st one third of infants/children with moderate to severe century, although there now are numerous labora- atopic dermatitis have food allergy. Although diagnosis of acute urticaria provoked by a food may be evident tory and clinical studies that suggest that the debate from a straightforward history and confirmed by diag- no longer needs to continue. The most recent studies nostic tests to detect food-specific IgE antibody, determi- have shown that the immunoglobulin E (IgE) re- nation of the role of food allergy in patients with atopic sponse after allergen-induced mast cell activation dermatitis is more difficult and may require additional has as its end product hypersensitivity reactions that diagnostic maneuvers, including elimination diets and are characterized by infiltration of monocytes and oral food challenges. The immunopathologic basis of lymphocytes.5,6 The pattern of cytokine expression in food-allergic disorders that affect the skin and a rational lymphocytes infiltrating acute atopic dermatitis le- approach to diagnosis and treatment are discussed. Ad- sions is predominantly that of the Th2 type (interleu- ditional disorders that are caused by or mimic ones kin-4, -5, and -13).7,8 In addition, these cytokines caused by food allergy are reviewed. Pediatrics 2003;111: 1617–1624; atopic dermatitis, urticaria, angioedema, der- promote eosinophil influx and activated eosinophils 7–10 matitis herpetiformis, auriculotemporal syndrome (Frey and eosinophil products. IgE-bearing Langerhans syndrome). cells that are upregulated by these cytokines are highly efficient at presenting allergens to T cells, primarily activating a Th profile (Fig 1). Thus, it ABBREVIATIONS. AD, atopic dermatitis; IgE, immunoglobulin E; 2 SBHR, spontaneous basophil histamine release; DBPCFC, double- seems that IgE antibody and the Th2 cytokine milieu blind, placebo-controlled food challenge; RAST, radioallergosor- do play a major role in the pathogenesis of these bent test; PST, prick skin test. lesions. Certainly, AD is an inherited genetic disor- der with an allergic diathesis. he skin is one of the target organs that is most often involved in food hypersensitivity reac- Laboratory Investigation tions. Clinical manifestations of food hypersen- Several studies in the laboratory investigation sup- T port a role for food-specific IgE antibody in the sitivity in the skin range from symptoms of atopic dermatitis, to urticaria and angioedema, dermatitis pathogenesis of AD. Patients have been shown to herpetiformis, and a masquerader of food allergy, have elevated concentrations of total IgE and food- Frey’s syndrome. All present with typical skin man- specific IgE antibodies.11,12 More than 50 years ago, ifestations of their food-allergic reactions. For most Walzer13,14 demonstrated that the ingestion of foods skin manifestations provoked by food hypersensitivity, would allow food antigens to penetrate the gastroin- pruritus is a hallmark of the disease. With this review, testinal barrier, which are then transported in the the above diseases are discussed, as well as the labora- circulation to IgE-bearing mast cells in the skin. Ad- tory and clinical investigations that demonstrate how ditional studies have shown that in patients who had food hypersensitivity plays a pathogenic role in the food-specific IgE antibodies and underwent oral skin manifestations of allergic reactions. food challenges, positive challenges were accompa- nied by increases in plasma histamine concentra- ATOPIC DERMATITIS tion,15 elaboration of eosinophil products,16 and ac- 17 Pathophysiology tivation of plasma eosinophils. Children who had AD and were chronically in- In the early 20th century, studies by Schloss1 and gesting foods to which they were allergic were found Talbot and Blackfan2,3 reported on cases of patients to have increased “spontaneous” basophil histamine release (SBHR) from peripheral blood basophils in From the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Arkansas Children’s vitro compared with children without food allergy or 18 Hospital, Little Rock, Arkansas. normal subjects. After placement on the appropri- Received for publication Sep 11, 2002; accepted Oct 30, 2002. ate elimination diet, they had significant clearing of Address correspondence to Wesley Burks, MD, University of Arkansas for their skin and significant fall in their SBHR. Other Medical Sciences, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, 1120 Marshall St, Slot 512-13, Little Rock, AR 72202. E-mail: [email protected] studies have shown that peripheral blood mononu- PEDIATRICS (ISSN 0031 4005). Copyright © 2003 by the American Acad- clear cells from food-allergic patients with high emy of Pediatrics. SBHR elaborate specific cytokines termed histamine Downloaded from www.aappublications.org/news by guestPEDIATRICS on September 30, Vol. 2021 111 No. 6 June 2003 1617 Fig 1. Immunologic progression of AD. releasing factors that would activate basophils from some patients during the milk and egg exclusion food-sensitive but not food-insensitive patients. Fur- phase, but no significant difference was seen in 40 thermore, passive sensitization experiments in vitro patients who completed the crossover trial. A study with basophils from nonatopic donors and IgE from by Juto et al23 indicated that approximately one third patients allergic to certain foods showed that ba- of the patients with AD had resolution of their rash sophils could be rendered sensitive to histamine re- and one half improved on a highly restricted diet. leasing factors.18 The cumulative results of these studies supported Food allergen-specific T cells have been cloned the role for food allergy in the exacerbation of AD, from normal skin and active skin lesions in patients but most of them failed to control other trigger fac- with AD.19,20 Cutaneous lymphocyte-associated an- tors, as well as controlling for placebo effect or ob- tigen is a homing molecule that interacts with E- server bias. selectin and directs T cells to the skin. In 1 study, In 1 of the original prospective follow-up studies, patients with milk-induced AD were compared with Sampson et al24 studied 34 patients with AD, 17 of control subjects with milk-induced gastrointestinal whom had food allergy, who were appropriately reactions without AD and with nonatopic control diagnosed by double-blind, placebo-controlled oral subjects.19 Casein-reactive T cells from children with food challenges (DBPCFCs). These patients had been milk-induced AD had a significantly higher expres- placed on an appropriate allergen elimination and sion of cutaneous lymphocyte-associated antigen experienced significant improvement in their clinical than Candida albicans-reactive T cells from the same symptomatology. They were followed up at a 1- to 2- patients and either casein or C albicans-reactive T and a 3- to 4-year time frame. They were compared cells from the control groups. with control subjects who did not have food allergy and children with food allergy who did not adhere to Clinical Studies their diet. These patients in follow-up did have im- Multiple clinical studies have addressed the role of provement in their AD compared with the control food allergy in AD and have shown that elimination groups, and their time frame for outgrowing their of relevant food allergens can lead to improvement food sensitivity was lessened. Lever et al25 per- in skin symptoms, that repeat challenge can lead to formed a randomized, controlled trial of egg elimi- redevelopment of symptoms, and that the disease nation in young children who had AD and positive can be partially prevented by prophylactically elim- radioallergosorbent test (RAST) to egg and were ex- inating highly allergenic foods from the diets of in- amined at a dermatology clinic. At the end of this fants and possibly breastfeeding mothers. study, egg allergy was confirmed by oral challenge, A number of studies have addressed the therapeu- and 55 children who were allergic to egg were ulti- tic effect of dietary elimination in the treatment of mately identified. There was a significant decrease in AD. Atherton et al21 showed that two thirds of chil- the skin area affected, as well as symptom scores in dren with AD between the ages of 2 and 8 years the children who avoided eggs compared with the showed marked improvement during a double-blind control subjects. crossover trial of milk and egg exclusion. Another Oral food challenges have been used to demon- trial by Neild et al22 demonstrated improvement in strate that challenge with a food allergen can induce 1618 SUPPLEMENT Downloaded from www.aappublications.org/news by guest on September 30, 2021 symptoms of rash and pruritus in children with food analysis of controlled trials comparing breastfeeding allergy-related AD. Sampson et al24,26–28 have pub- with formula feeding demonstrated a significant re- lished a number of articles that have used DBPCFCs duction in AD in the infants who received breast