Hindawi Publishing Corporation Dermatology Research and Practice Volume 2014, Article ID 674709, 10 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/674709 Review Article Pathogenesis of Chronic Urticaria: An Overview Sanjiv Jain Skin Care Clinic, 108 Darya Ganj, New Delhi 110002, India Correspondence should be addressed to Sanjiv Jain;
[email protected] Received 14 April 2014; Accepted 15 June 2014; Published 10 July 2014 Academic Editor: Lajos Kemeny Copyright © 2014 Sanjiv Jain. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The pathogenesis of chronic urticaria is not well delineated and the treatment is palliative as it is not tied to the pathomechanism. The centrality of mast cells and their inappropriate activation and degranulation as the key pathophysiological event are well established. The triggering stimuli and the complexity of effector mechanisms remain speculative. Autoimmune origin of chronic urticaria, albeit controversial, is well documented. Numerical and behavioral alterations in basophils accompanied by changes in signaling molecule expression and function as well as aberrant activation of extrinsic pathway of coagulation are other alternative hypotheses. It is also probable that mast cells are involved in the pathogenesis through mechanisms that extend beyond high affinity IgE receptor stimulation. An increasing recognition of chronic urticaria as an immune mediated inflammatory disorder related to altered cytokine-chemokine network consequent to immune dysregulation resulting from disturbed innate immunity is emerging as yet another pathogenic explanation. It is likely that these different pathomechanisms are interlinked rather than independent cascades, acting either synergistically or sequentially to produce clinical expression of chronic urticaria.