Why patients with epidermolysis bullosa suffer extreme pain
Friday, July 8, 2011 - 09:30
in Health & Medicine
For patients suffering from epidermolysis bullosa (EB), a hereditary skin disease, even a gentle touch is extremely painful. Now Dr. Li-Yang Chiang, Dr. Kate Poole and Professor Gary R. Lewin of the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in Berlin-Buch have discovered the causes underlying this disease. Due to a genetic defect, individuals with EB cannot form laminin-332, a structural molecule of the skin that in healthy individuals inhibits the transduction of tactile stimuli and neuronal branching. According to the findings of the MDC researchers, this explains why EB patients are more sensitive to touch and experience it as painful.