Scratching more than an itch

Affiliations

Comment

Aaron Ver Heul. Science. 2025.

. 2025 Jan 31;387(6733):473-474.

doi: 10.1126/science.adv1573. Epub 2025 Jan 30.

¹ Divison of Allergy and Immunology, John T. Milliken Department of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.

Abstract

Enhanced antibacterial skin inflammation is an adaptation of the itch-scratch cycle.

Scratching promotes allergic inflammation and host defense via neurogenic mast cell activation.
Liu AW, Zhang YR, Chen CS, Edwards TN, Ozyaman S, Ramcke T, McKendrick LM, Weiss ES, Gillis JE, Laughlin CR, Randhawa SK, Phelps CM, Kurihara K, Kang HM, Nguyen SN, Kim J, Sheahan TD, Ross SE, Meisel M, Sumpter TL, Kaplan DH. Liu AW, et al. Science. 2025 Jan 31;387(6733):eadn9390. doi: 10.1126/science.adn9390. Epub 2025 Jan 31. Science. 2025. PMID: 39883751 Free PMC article.