How does treatment for atopic dermatitis work?

Treatments for atopic dermatitis interrupt the condition at the cellular level. It is important to work with your dermatologist to form a treatment plan.

Transcript

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I am interested in treating my atopic dermatitis. But I'm curious-- how would treatment work, exactly?

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Awesome question. It's cool to explain how these things are working, because it's really interesting.

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Let's start by taking a look at skin affected by AD. If we go inside the body all the way to the cell level,

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we can see that immune cells are what's called degranulating, and they're releasing chemicals called cytokines--

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you can see them here in yellow. Cytokines regulate how the immune system reacts to things like inflammation, infections,

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or in response to allergens, among other things. Some of these chemicals cause defects in the skin barrier,

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as well as inflammation shown here in red, by signaling other cells to the area.

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This results in clinical manifestations of atopic dermatitis. What happens though is that the release of these cytokines

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ends up recruiting even more cells that release more cytokines, leading to a vicious cycle. Treatments for atopic dermatitis typically

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work by blocking one or more steps of this process, what we call "the inflammatory cascade," in order

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to reduce or stop all of that cytokine activity. You can see the treatment here in blue.

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When treatment is working, shown here in green, the immune system effectively calms down, and we can see the atopic dermatitis flare

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calm down as well. Work with your dermatologist to create a treatment plan that works best for you.