Honey is potentially effective in the treatment of atopic dermatitis: Clinical and mechanistic studies
Introduction
As manuka honey (MH) exhibits immunoregulatory and anti-staphylococcal activities, we aimed to investigate if it could be effective in the treatment of atopic dermatitis (AD).
Methods
Adult volunteers with bilateral AD lesions were asked to apply MH on one site overnight for seven consecutive days and leave the contralateral site untreated as possible. Three Item Severity score was used to evaluate the response. Skin swabs were obtained from both sites before and after treatment to investigate the presence of staphylococci and enterotoxin production. In addition, the ability of MH and its methanolic and hexane extracts to down regulate IL4-induced CCL26 protein release from HaCaT cells was evaluated by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. Also, the ability of MH to modulate calcium ionophore-induced mast cell degranulation was assessed by enzyme immunoassay.
Results
In 14 patients, AD lesions significantly improved post MH treatment versus pre-treatment as compared to control lesions. No significant changes in the skin staphylococci were observed after day 7, irrespective of honey treatment. Consistent with the clinical observation, MH significantly down regulated IL4-induced CCL26 release from HaCaT cells in a dose-dependent manner. This effect was partially lost, though remained significant, when methanolic and hexane extracts of MH were utilized. In addition, mast cell degranulation was significantly inhibited following treatment with MH.
Conclusions
MH is potentially effective in the treatment of AD lesions based on both clinical and cellular studies through different mechanisms. This needs to be confirmed by randomized and controlled clinical trials.
Funding
This study was funded by the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University through the research group project No. RGP-VPP-190
History
Published in
Immunity, Inflammation and DiseasePublisher
WileyVersion
- VoR (Version of Record)
Citation
Alangari, A. A., Morris,, K., Lwaleed, B. A., Lau, L., Jones, K., Cooper, R. and Jenkins, R. (2017) 'Honey is potentially effective in the treatment of atopic dermatitis: Clinical and mechanistic studies', Immunity, Inflammation and Disease, 5 (2), pp. 190-199Electronic ISSN
2050-4527Cardiff Met Affiliation
- Cardiff School of Sport and Health Sciences
Cardiff Met Authors
Keith MorrisCardiff Met Research Centre/Group
- Cardiovascular Metabolism and Inflammation
Copyright Holder
- © The Authors
Language
- en