Auto-oxidative damage in cement dermatitis.

Oxygen intermediates (OIs) generated by stimulated polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) are known to induce auto-oxidative tissue damage at the site of inflammation. PMNs from five patients with severe and chronic cement dermatitis generated markedly increased levels of OIs. However, only a slight increase in OI generation by PMNs was observed in cement workers without cement dermatitis. Dapsone, which has recently been shown to decrease OI levels, was found to be clinically effective in the treatment of cement dermatitis in these five patients. After treatment, a significant decrease in OI generation was observed in all patients studied. In skin tissues from the cement workers without cement dermatitis, enhanced superoxide-dismutase (SOD) activities as well as increased OI generation by PMNs were noted. In spite of the greatly increased OI generation by PMNs, the SOD activities in the patients were comparable to those in healthy controls. These findings suggest that the severe skin manifestations in patients with cement dermatitis can partly be explained by a defective capacity for enhancing SOD activity which removes increased PMN-derived OIs and thus prevents subsequent tissue injury by OIs at the site of inflammation.