Effect of Several Herbal Medicines on Atopic Dermatitis Patients' SCORAD and Cytokine Levels

수종 한약 처방이 아토피 피부염 환자의 SCORAD 및 Cytokine 변화에 미치는 영향

The purpose of this study is to determine whether the clinical activity of patients with atopic dermatitis(AD) correlate with their serum cytokine levels. 86 patients with AD were treated with KHS, YMH and GHT. On each visit to the clinic, their skin status was evaluated using the SCORAD index and serum IL-4, $IFN-{\gamma}$, IL-12, IL-13, IL-2 and IL-10 were measured by ELISA. After oral administration of herbal medicine, patients' skin status and subjective parameters such as pruritus and sleeplessness were significantly improved according to regression analysis. In particular, patients aged 0-9 showed stronger responses to treatment, which implies that the younger patients aged, the easier the treatment by herbal formula became. In analysis of the type of chosen herbal medicines, YMH treated group showed a stronger response in reduction of affected lesion, intensity of a lesion and subjective symptoms, while KHS treated group showed the least reduction. The levels of serum IL-4, $IFN-{\gamma}$ and IL-2 correlated with disease activity. Moreover, in patients under 0-9, the IL-4 level had a corrleation with disease activity; patients under 10-19 showed a correlation between the levels of IL-4 and IL-2 and disease activity; patients under 20-29 showed a correlation between the levels of IL-2, IL-12 and $IFN-{\gamma}$ and disease activity. In comparison with chosen herbal medicines, the groups treated with YMH or GHT treated group showed a correlation between the levels of IL-4, IL-12 and IL-2 and disease activity while KHS treated group did not. Our data suggest that serum levels of IL-4 and IL-13 are good indicators of clinical improvement in treating AD.