Abstract
Chronic urticaria (CU) is a common clinical disease that seriously
affects the quality of life of patients, but its pathogenesis is still
not fully understood. The autoimmunity of chronic spontaneous urticaria
(CSU) has been highly concerned and intensively studied in the past.
Atopy is also one of the important characteristics of CU, but it has not
been fully recognized. Atopy is a predisposition to respond
immunologically to allergens, leading to type 2 inflammation and
overproduction of immunoglobulin E (IgE). Compared with the healthy
population, patients with CU have a higher proportion of atopy, and
atopic background is correlated with the clinical characteristics of CU.
The total IgE level of CU patients is significantly higher than that of
healthy people. Although it is not higher than that of classic allergic
diseases, its level is also closely related to CU. Exogenous allergens,
autoallergens and their specific IgE, which are closely related to
atopy, have been gradually discovered in CU, and their roles in the
pathogenesis of CU are also being studied. Atopic inflammation is
equally present in CU, both locally and systemically. This review
summarizes up-to-date knowledge regarding atopy and CU, and speculates
that atopic CSU or atopic CIndU indeed exists, providing a fresh
perspective for comprehensively understanding the clinical
characteristics of CU and further studying its pathogenesis.