IL-6 and IL-1β expression is increased in autologous serum skin test of patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria.

A number of studies have demonstrated elevated IL‐6 serum level in patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU): higher in severe disease and in nonresponders to antihistamines, and remarkably decreased upon spontaneous remission.1 Recent reviews have described IL‐6 as a biomarker of CSU activity,2 whereas IL‐1β has been poorly investigated, and data are contradictory.3-6 Two recent interesting studies have however shown, by microarray analyses, an upregulation of both IL‐1β expression and IL‐6 expression in spontaneous urticarial wheals as compared to unaffected skin.7, 8 In the present study, we confirm this upregulation, and moreover, we demonstrate, for the first time, that IL6 and IL1β mRNA expression is significantly increased in positive autologous serum skin tests (ASST) [...