Dr. Wen Lynn Ho inserts a microdialysis catheter into the skin on my left forearm under the watchful eye of Professor Bart Ramsey. I do not suffer from psoriasis myself but I acted as a control in this study – for comparison.
Psoriasis is a chronic skin disease resulting from abnormal immune function and is characterized by the presence of scaly psoriatic plaques which are areas of inflammation and excessive skin production. The exact cause remains unknown but the brain may be involved given that stress can trigger psoriatic flares.
In my latest research at the University of Limerick (UL) Medical School, I have been leading a team who have successfully applied a new method of monitoring chemicals in the body – a method known as microdialysis – which has the potential to revolutionise the diagnosis and treatment of this disease
Microdialysis involves the temporary insertion of microscopic hollow tubes or artificial blood vessels through the skin. Artificial blood (or Ringer) solution is then passed through the tubes at a very slow rate allowing any chemicals or biological markers to be trapped and carried away by microdialysis catheters and collected.
What is revolutionary about this technique is that it can go into the living skin. We can measure skin chemistry in real-time without any drugs. This is the first time inIreland that skin chemistry has been measured by microdialysis. Currently the only way to monitor skin chemistry is by biopsy. However, as biopsy involves punching a hole in the skin causing damage and wound formation, it does not provide a real-time physiological picture as the skin tested is dead.
By putting these tiny artificial blood vessels into the skin and fooling the skin into thinking that these are real blood vessels, we can extract chemicals without doing any damage.
Read more:
Rapid quantification of histamine in human psoriatic plaques using microdialysis (article in press, Journal of Chromatography)
(article in press, Journal of Chromatography)
Related Article:
inside-the-brain.com 