In rare cases, some children are born with extremely delicate skin, breaking and blistering at the lightest touch.
An ingredient found in broccoli and related vegetables may help, according to research by doctors at Johns Hopkins University, though practical medical treatment may remain a distant possibility.
“Starting to pile up on broccoli ? we can?t say at this time that?s actually going to help people,” said lead researcher Pierre Coulombe, Ph.D., professor of biological chemistry at Hopkins.
Broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and other related vegetables contain a precursor to the chemical sulforaphane, a chemical that helps prevent the severe blistering and skin breakage brought on by the rare and potentially fatal genetic disease epidermolysis bullosa simplex (EBS). Coulombe and his team applied the compound to the skin of mice bred to have EBS and the blistering went away in 85 percent of the mice. Without treatment, the mice typically died within three days.
Mouse skin is very close to human skin, genetically, Coulombe said.
The article detailing their experiments appeared online this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The rare disorder ? it occurs in about one in 30,000 children ? stems from deficiencies in two genes that make proteins known as keratins. Keratins form highly resilient fibers in the lower layers of skin, but if either keratin is defective, the lower skin tissue becomes unusually fragile.
“In severe cases, it would be similar to what would happen when you have severe burns. You lose water and you lose your barrier to infection,” Coulombe said.
While milder forms may not appear until adulthood, the disease ranges in severity from minor blistering of the skin to a lethal form involving other organs, according to MedLine Plus. The condition generally appears at birth or soon after.
“This is the first suggestion that we may be able to treat this terrible disease,” Paul Talalay, M.D., professor of pharmacology and a co-author of this study, said in a statement. “And we didn?t need to invent a new drug; sulforaphane is naturally found in our diet.”
While Coulombe cautioned there are many hurdles to an effective treatment, sulforaphane found in broccoli has other benefits.
“It can prevent the onset of cancer in several types of tissues, including the skin,” he said.
