BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Allergy
Sec. Mechanisms in Allergy
This article is part of the Research TopicAtopic March and Atopic MultimorbidityView all 9 articles
Immune and Epithelial Responses to Textile Dyes: The Role of Chemical Structure in Toxicity
Provisionally accepted
- North Carolina State University, Raleigh, United States
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Continuous exposure to textile dyes can result in potential health risks, such as inflammatory and allergic responses. We investigated immunotoxicity, and epithelial responses induced by Disperse Blue 1, 124, 79.1, and 183 when in co-culture with swine peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), intestinal porcine epithelial cells (IPEC), and human epidermal skin scaffolds. PBMC cytokine production (IFN-γ and TNF-α ), cell viability, IPEC gene expression profiles (by Nanostring analysis) and histopathology of human epidermis were evaluated. Disperse Blue 124 strongly increased pro-inflammatory cytokines without significant cytotoxicity, suggesting high sensitization potential. Contrarily, Disperse Blue 1 exhibited high cytotoxicity despite moderate cytokine production. Nanostring analysis revealed prominent epithelial inflammation (CCL20 upregulation) and compromised barrier integrity (CLDN-4) with Blue 1 and Blue 124, but not Blue 79.1 and 183. Histopathology further confirmed epidermal damage, with Blue 1 and 124. Therefore, dye-induced effects correlated with chemical structure, molecular weight, hydrophobicity, and functional groups, supporting the hypothesis that structural properties influence toxicity and absorption.
Keywords: Blue 124, Blue 183, Blue 79.1, Cytokines, Disperse Blue 1, EpiDerm, epidermal histopathology, Epithelial Cells
Received: 27 May 2025; Accepted: 28 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cortes. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lizette M Cortes
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.