Basic Research in Endocrine Dermatology: 3rd Teupitzer Colloquium, Berlin, September 17-20, 2000 (Special Issue: Hormone Research 2000, 5-6)

Dermatological research has experienced a rapid development in the last two decades, however, it has rarely focused on the endocrine functions of the skin. Only a few years ago clinicians and researchers in dermatology started to explore the skin as a target organ for most hormones. In the last years the skin has been recognized as the largest endocrine, paracrine and autocrine organ of the body. It is able to metabolize steroid hormones and to produce derivatives with potentially systemic activity. Disorders of hormone metabolism can either induce direct effects on the skin or indirectly disturb skin homeostasis. Endocrine dermatology is a new and exciting area of skin research. It includes skin diseases due to or associated with endocrine disorders, skin disorders which can be treated with hormones or with compounds with hormone-like activity, and skin disorders which occur as adverse events of hormone treatment or of treatment with compounds exhibiting a hormone-like effect.