The immune response to S. aureus in atopic dermatitis.
The skin of patients with atopic dermatitis is heavily colonized with S. aureus, and their immune response to S. aureus shows some particular features: (1) A selective hyporesponsiveness to purified S. aureus cell walls in delayed type hypersensitivity skin reactions. (2) The presence of IgE to cell walls and soluble antigens of S. aureus in patients with high serum IgE levels. (3) Elevated cell wall IgE do not correlate with positive immediate skin reactions to whole S. aureus and their cell walls. (4) Regional lymphadenopathy but not impetiginization is associated with high total IgE and S. aureus cell wall IgE. We suggest that these changes in the immune response to S. aureus are related to the chronic S. aureus colonization of the skin.