INFLAMMATORY CELL-MEDIATED tissue injury is a final common pathway in the pathogenetic mechanisms of many skin diseases. Dermatologic observations and investigative studies on a wide variety of therapeutic agents and modalities, which have anti-inflammatory efficacy, have often pioneered in discovering new directions and understanding about the control of such inflammatory tissue injury. In addition to their practical usefulness in the treatment of skin diseases, these dermatologic contributions have had applications in the treatment of a variety of other medical disorders, especially those in which complement activation via either the classic or alternative pathway activates neutrophilic tissue injury as occurs, for example, in a number of vasculitides and rheumatoid arthritis. It is likely that many further opportunities for their beneficial exploitation await wider medical exploration.
Dermatologists were the first to recognize that certain antimicrobial agents had anti-inflammatory pharmacologic activity unrelated to their antibacterial activity. Sulzberger1 in 1939 reported the successful