The pH of the healthy skin is 5.5 and maintained by many regulatory mechanisms. The pH of the skin care product we use on a daily basis can have an influence on the skin properties. To investigate how the physical properties of skin change after the alkaline or acidic pH of the skin care products are applied on the skin for a long term, we adjusted the pH of the skin care products to 3, 5 and 8 (A, B, C), with glycolic acid and triethanolamine. For 5 weeks the skin care products were applied on 20 healthy subjects' ventral forearm and the skin physical properties were measured. After 5 weeks, skin responses to the external stress of 1% (w/v) SLS (sodium lauryl sulphate) irritation and erythema by UV were measured. Skin colour and skin UV response were not altered by the pH. However, on the C-applied site (pH 8) the transepidermal water loss of stratum corneum (SC) increased significantly, the water content increased and desquamation decreased, respectively, and the SLS significantly impaired the skin barrier in comparison with other sites. The alkaline skin care product impaired the skin barrier after repeated application over 5-week period and the skin barrier was disrupted severely by 1% SLS exposure because SC was already impaired by alkaline pH and sensitive to external stress. This suggests that the pH of daily skin care products is very important for skin barrier homeostasis.

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Striae distensae are skin lesions which occur in rapid tissue expansion such as pregnancy, puberty, obesity as well as in medical use of corticosteroids. They appear as parallel inflammatory streaks aligned perpendicular to the direction of skin tension. In early stage, striae distensae are raised and erythematous (rubra), but they develop into chronic phase of hypopigmented, atrophic scars (alba). Measurements of striae distensae are essential to research the aetiological mechanism or to evaluate the clinical efficacy of treatments. The objective of this study was to investigate skin biophysical properties of striae distensae in vivo. Volunteers with striae rubra or alba on different locations of the body participated. Noninvasive measurements including skin surface structure, skin lightness, and hydration were conducted on striae distensae and compared to adjacent normal skin. As a result, striae alba had a wrinkled, atrophied structure, and the wrinkle depth and depressed volume were higher than normal skin. Striae rubra were slightly raised, and the volume of elevation could be measured quantitatively. As for the blob pattern of skin surface, striae distensae were more anisotropic and directional, and showed more irregular polygonal pattern of each segmented unit than normal skin. The average area of each blob was higher and the number of blob per unit area was less than normal skin. In addition, striae alba showed increased lightness (L*) and decreased redness (a*), whereas striae rubra had decreased L* and increased a* when compared to normal skin. Difference in skin hydration was not detected between striae distensae and adjacent skin. In conclusion, we measured the various skin biophysical properties of striae distensae including rubra and alba, and found out significant differences in skin color and various surface structures when compared to the adjacent normal skin. These features were proved to be reliable evaluation parameters for striae distensae severity. 1341 CXCL12 enhances migration of Multilineage-differentiating stress enduring cells and induces Wnt3a to maintains cell plasticity of fibroblasts

Interventions often result in statistically significant quality of life (QoL) improvement, but may not reach the threshold of clinical importance. The minimal clinically important difference (MCID) is the minimal score change of relevance clinically. We introduce the concept of 2MCID, a score change at least twice the usual threshold (i.e. 8 for DLQI), highlighting therapies changing by this higher threshold. A systematic review was conducted of the use of QoL instruments and of the impact of psoriasis treatments in randomized controlled trials (RCTs). 388 search terms were used to conduct searches in six databases adhering to PRISMA guidelines. Two assessors independently reviewed abstracts: a third resolved differences. Of 3646 screened publications, 99 articles (100 trials) involving 33,215 subjects met inclusion eligibility criteria. Of these 100 trials, 37 reported MCID; 32 DLQI, 10 SF-36 and 6 EQ-5D. 33 trials tested topical therapy, 18 systemic, 39 biologics, 9 phototherapy and 10 other interventions. For studies with treatment endpoint or assessment at 12 weeks, the interventions with the greatest average DLQI impact in each category were: Liquor Carbonis Distillate 15% (>1MCID, 5.8 pts), ciclosporin 3-5 mg/kg (>1MCID, 6.6 pts), secukinumab 300 mg (>2MCID, 11.4 pts), PUVAsol 0.6 mg/kg + isotretinoin 0.5 mg/kg (>2MCID, 11.2 pts) and educational programme (1MCID, 4 pts). Clolobetasol spray 0.05% (8 points, 4 weeks), ustekinumab 90 mg (8, 12), etanercept 50 mg (8.7, 24) and MTX 15 mg (8.7, 16) also reached 2MCID. The concept of '2MCID' adds meaning to score change when comparing therapies and results across different QoL instruments, though this requires further validation. However secukinumab and PUVAsol + isotretinoin both reached 2MCID at 12 weeks, according well with clinical experience.

Urticaria, defined by the presence of wheals and/or angioedema, is a common skin disorder, but the etiology of urticaria in children remains incompletely understood. The aim of this study is to determine the clinical characteristics of urticaria in children. We retrospectively investigated 73 patients (range 0-14 years, female 40 patients) who suffered from urticaria and visited to our outpatient clinic more than twice from 2010 to 2013. Data were collected regarding age, sex, disease duration, severity and laboratory parameters such as total IgE, antinuclear antibodies and routine laboratory tests. From 73 patients with urticaria, there were 45 patients (61.6%) with spontaneous acute urticaria and 13 patients (17.8%) with spontaneous chronic urticaria. Mean disease duration at first visit of chronic urticaria was 5.0 months. Among the patients with spontaneous acute urticaria, infection was found as the trigger in 17 patients (37.8%). And there were 8 patients (11.0%) with allergic urticaria (food or drug), 5 patients (6.6%) with physical urticaria (solar, cold contact or heat contact), 2 patients (2.6%) with angioedema and 2 patients (2.6%) with mastocytosis. Our data showed that spontaneous acute urticaria was the most frequent type of urticaria, followed by spontaneous chronic urticaria. In addition, infections were the most frequent triggering factor of acute urticaria.