Expression and function of histamine and its receptors in atopic dermatitis

BACKGROUND: Atopic dermatitis constitutes a most burdensome chronic inflammatory skin disease. Standard treatment is cumbersome and often targets its main symptom, pruritus, only insufficiently. FINDINGS: Recent advances in our understanding of the role of histamine and its four receptors suggest new approaches which target the histamine receptors alone or as combination therapies to more efficiently combat pruritus and inflammation in atopic dermatitis. CONCLUSIONS: With this review, we provide an overview on histamine and the expression of its four receptors on skin resident and nonresident cells. Furthermore, we summarize recent studies which suggest anti-histamine therapy to efficiently combat pruritus and inflammation in atopic dermatitis and discuss possible approaches to incorporate these findings into more effective treatment strategies for atopic dermatitis in childhood.