Allergènes de contact forts

Abstract

Two important parameters control skin sensitization to a xenobiotic molecule: its sensitizing potential, an intrinsic property of each chemical, and exposure. It is often difficult to quantify a patient's exposure to a given allergen, which makes it difficult to define strong allergens. Indeed, the prevalence of an allergen, as determined by patch testing, reflects not its strength but a combination of sensitizing potential and exposure. The definition of strong sensitizers is therefore mainly derived from animal experiments where it is possible to assess a sensitization threshold or the dose per square centimeter that is able to induce significant sensitization. It has been shown in a limited number of case studies, that there is a good correlation between sensitization thresholds assessed in mice by the Local Lymph Node Assay (LLNA) and those obtained in humans with the Human Repeated Insult Patch Test (HRIPT). Based on this classification, one can recognize that strong sensitizers are quite common and that the general population is exposed regularly to them. Although the strong sensitizers include a broad diversity of chemicals, they have in common the ability to rapidly modify nucleophilic residues of proteins.