EXPERIMENTAL STRESS DERMATITIS

[摘要] Typical skin lesions reminiscent of eczematous plaques or of seborrheic dermatitis were produced in the albino rat and the guinea pig fed normal diets by means of various forms of stress. The animals simultaneously disclosed changes in the capillary resistance (capillary stress response) and the skin lesions appeared always at a time when capillary resistance was at low levels. Whereas extrinsic factors (exposure of the skin to local irritation by removal of the hairs) were considered to play an undoubted role in exciting these lesions, the presence of an intrinsic factor produced by the stress and rendering the external factors effective must be assumed. This is postulated because non-stressed animals (with normal capillary resistance) failed to develop the lesions despite presence of the same external factors. It is proposed that the described lesions, since they were produced by stress be termed experimental stress dermatitis. On the basis of our recent knowledge concerning capillary resistance the possible nature of the intrinsic factor is discussed.