Research in Skin Inflammation

Completed

Conditions studied: Psoriasis

In brief

This study will examine the production of proteins called chemokines in inflammatory skin reactions. It is thought that chemokines attract or recruit white blood cells from the blood stream into the skin when there is a skin injury or infection, causing inflammation. This study will examine chemokine production in induced inflammatory reactions to try to gain a better understanding of how white blood cells are attracted to inflamed areas of the body. Healthy normal volunteers between 33 and 60 years old may be eligible for this study if they 1) have no history of chronic skin disease; 2) are not allergic to eggs; and 3) do not tend to form large irregular scars after trauma to the skin from, for example, cuts, scratches and surgical incisions. Candidates will be asked a short series of questions and have a limited skin examination. Participants will have 10 ml (2 tablespoons) of blood drawn from an arm vein at the start and end of the 5-day study and undergo the following procedures: 1. Day 1 - Participants receive an injection in the right upper arm of mumps antigen (a protein commonly used to tests for immunization against mumps) and an injection of "vehicle" (saline plus the preservatives thimerosal, glycine and formaldehyde) in the left upper arm. 2. Day 3 - Participants who develop a swelling from the mumps antigen larger than 5 mm wide will receive another injection of antigen in the right arm and another injection of vehicle in the left arm. Those whose swelling is not greater than 5 mm will be excluded from the study at this point. 3. Day 5 - All four injection sites, plus another site on the left upper arm will be biopsied. For this procedure the five injection areas are numbed with a local anesthetic. A punch biopsy instrument that resembles a small cookie cutter (about one-third the diameter of a dime) is inserted about one-fifth of an inch deep into the skin and the tissue is removed. Two stitches are used to close the wound. Antibiotic and bandages are applied for 5 days. Nine days after the biopsy the participant returns to NIH for removal of the stitches. New molecular biology techniques will be used to measure changes in chemokine production in the biopsied tissue.

Key facts

Study ID
NCT00026741
Run by
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
People needed
10
Starts
2001-03-01
Expected to finish
2002-01-01
Last updated by the study team
2008-03-04

Who can join

Age: any. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

Where it is running

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

Trial information comes from ClinicalTrials.gov and is refreshed daily. TrialsForMe does not provide medical care and does not run the studies it lists.