01240-A: Development of a Diagnostic Method for Canine Atopic Dermatitis
Grant Status: Closed
Project Summary
Atopic dermatitis is an inflammatory, chronically relapsing skin disease that causes intense itching in dogs. The skin of atopic dogs reacts abnormally to environmental allergens. Confirmation of atopy in dogs is often a clinical challenge which involves ruling out other causes such as fleas, food allergies, etc. The purpose of this project was to develop simple blood tests to determine whether or not a dog is likely to have atopic dermatitis. This was done by developing an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for blood serum to determine if the dog is hyper-reactive to its own immune cells. Serum samples from a total of 58 dogs, 29 with atopic dermatitis and 29 non-atopic dogs were analyzed for reactivity using the newly developed ELISA. Dogs with atopic dermatitis had significantly higher anti-immune cell reactivity compared to non atopic dogs (median 6,400 vs. 400 respectively). These results suggest that immune cell reactivity as measured by this new assay may serve as a biomarker for atopic dermatitis in dogs. The ability to distinguish atopic dermatitis in dogs from other skin conditions with similar symptoms would be a substantial advantage for treatment. Next steps include determining wither immune cell hyper-reactivity is specific to atopic dermatitis or whether other autoimmune diseases in dogs react similarly.
Publication(s)
None at this time.
Help Future Generations of Dogs
Participate in canine health research by providing samples or by enrolling in a clinical trial. Samples are needed from healthy dogs and dogs affected by specific diseases.
