Skin microcirculation, adherence molecules and inflammatory dermatoses

Skin is a peculiar organ with regard to its microcirculation. The dermal vasculature is enriched with abundant anastomoses. It forms a single compartment where blood can be pulsed in any direction without always following an arteriolovenular gradient. Under various pro-inflammatory stimuli, endothelial cells express diverse adhesion molecules whose specificity leads to the intradermal collection of specific leukocytic lineages. Such basic mechanism is at the origin of all inflammatory dermatoses. It is possible and even probable that some antihistamines, flavonoids and antiseptics modulate in a beneficial way the expression of some adhesion molecules.