Dermal glycosaminoglycans characterise the primary irritant dermatitis in psoriatics and healthy individuals.

Primary irritant dermatitis includes an inflammatory process of connective tissue which is of general interest. For the first time this process has been characterised biochemically in humans by following the dermal changes in the concentration of hydroxyproline and four glycosaminoglycans. In healthy individuals (n = 7) and in psoriatics (n = 8) the changes were rather similar. Only dermatan sulphate showed a tendency towards an abnormal response in the psoriatics. In both groups the deviations from the pre-irritant condition clearly distinguished the response of irritant dermatitis from that of the wound healing process: (1) the concentration of hyaluronic acid decreased by the third day and remained so until by the sixth day, (2) after a decrease on the third day the concentration of dermatan sulphate returned to the initial value by the sixth day, (3 and 4) the concentration of chondroitin 4/6-sulphate and heparan sulphate increased continuously from the third to the sixth day, and (5) the concentration of hydroxyproline remained constant throughout the period of investigation.