ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the role of adhesion molecules in the trafficking of inflammatory cells to and within the skin and nose in allergic diseases, and reviews some of the inflammatory mediators found at these sites that are critical for cellular recruitment and adhesion molecule expression. Allergic diseases of the skin and nose have not received as much attention, possibly because good animal models are lacking and these diseases are not typically associated with the same degree of morbidity and mortality. The selective recruitment of eosinophils into sites of inflammation is largely a function of eosinophil-activating cytokines, endothelial-activating cytokines, and chemotactic cytokines or chemokines. Keratinocytes also constitutively express several members of the integrin family of adhesion molecules. The kinetics of endothelial adhesion molecule expression have also been studied in allergic contact dermatitis. Adhesion molecule expression has been studied in several inflammatory diseases of the nose.
