Allergic Skin Disorders: A Global Perspective

Cutaneous allergy is an increasingly visible intersection of environmental change, consumer-product chemistry, workplace exposures, and immune variability. Yet, our field still lacks harmonized, globally comparable evidence on who becomes sensitized, to what, and why, and how allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) interlocks with atopic/allergic pathways, barrier dysfunction, and microbiome–neuroimmune mechanisms. This Research Topic aims to unify clinical, epidemiologic, occupational, and translational perspectives to: (i) map contemporary allergen landscapes across regions and industries; (ii) refine patch testing practice (series selection, reading strategies, relevance assessment, and reporting standards); and (iii) accelerate biomarker-driven and mechanism-informed approaches that can predict disease course, severity, and prevention opportunities. By assembling cross-regional data and methods, we hope to move from “allergen lists” to actionable risk models that inform patient counseling, product regulation, and workplace safety.ACD remains one of the most preventable inflammatory skin diseases, but prevention is undermined by evolving exposures (e.g., preservatives, fragrances, rubber accelerators, acrylates, metals, dyes), inconsistent access to standardized patch testing, and uneven surveillance across countries. At the same time, the boundaries between ACD and atopic dermatitis (AD) are increasingly nuanced, with overlapping barrier defects, type 2 skewing, and heterogeneous endotypes. Global variation in sensitization patterns reflects differences in consumer products, climate, occupations, regulatory policies, cultural practices, and healthcare access. These realities create an urgent need for integrative work that connects exposure science + patch test epidemiology + immune/biomarker discovery, so that clinical decision-making and public health action can be tailored to local and migrant populations.We invite submissions addressing the following themes, but not limited to: - Global and regional patterns of contact sensitization (including under-studied regions and skin-of-color populations)- Occupational and environmental exposures, emerging allergens, and outbreak investigations- Patch testing methodology (baseline vs expanded series, photo-patch testing, relevance frameworks, digital tools/AI-assisted reading, reporting standardization)- ACD–AD interface (comorbidities, filaggrin/barrier biology, type 2 and non–type 2 pathways, microbiome, pruritus neurobiology)- Biomarkers and mechanistic studies (tape-strip/omics, cytokine signatures, barrier markers, microbiome metabolites, exposome-linked immune modulation)- Prevention and policy (product regulation, workplace interventions, education, implementation science).Manuscript types: Original Research, Systematic/Scoping Reviews, Mini Reviews, Methods Papers, Brief Research Reports, Perspectives, and Clinical/Occupational case series with strong exposure documentation. Topic editors: Howard Maibach, Indrashis Podder, Hitaishi Mehta Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/77670/allergic-skin-disorders-a-global-perspective