@article{ref1,
title="Skin and self-injury: a possible link between peripheral innervation and immune function?",
journal="Developmental medicine and child neurology",
year="2014",
author="Symons, Frank J. and Gilles, Elizabeth and Tervo, Raymond and Wendelschafer-Crabb, Gwen and Panoutsopoulou, Ioanna and Kennedy, William",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="The aim of this preliminary case study series was to investigate epidermal innervation in pediatric patients with significant neurological impairment and self-injurious behavior. We enrolled four pediatric patients with self-injury (two males, two females; mean age 12y, range 9-14y) and used archival specimens from healthy, age-matched children with typical development for comparison purposes. Epidermal nerve fiber density, peptide content, and mast cell degranulation patterns from non-damaged skin were tested between the patients and the comparison group. The male patients with self-injury had significantly increased epidermal nerve fiber densities, increased substance P positive fiber count and extensive mast cell degranulation compared with sex- and age-matched individuals with typical development. Our case series shows for the first time altered peripheral innervation from non-damaged tissue in children with significant self-injury and developmental disability compared with a healthy comparison group. Establishing the role of peripheral nociceptive and immune modulatory neural pathways may offer new treatment avenues for this devastating neurobehavioral disorder.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0012-1622",
doi="10.1111/dmcn.12580",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/dmcn.12580"
}