STEROID INHIBITION OF EDEMA FORMATION IN THE RAT SKIN

1 A model has been developed to compare the inhibitory effects of the topical steroid, betamethasone-17-valerate, to those of systemically administered betamethasone upon oedema responses induced by 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), platelet activating factor (PAF) and zymosan-activated serum (ZAS) +/- prostaglandin E1 (PGE1), measured in the rat skin by use of I-125-labelled human serum albumin. 2 Systemic betamethasone had a selective, time- and dose-dependent inhibitory effect upon oedema treatment, with 1 mg kg-1 and a 3 h pretreatment having the greatest effect of the doses and times employed. 3 Topical betamethasone inhibited the oedema responses to all of the stimuli showing no apparent selectivity. 4 Topical betamethasone inhibits inflammatory stimuli in a different manner from systemic betamethasone. The broad spectrum of inhibition suggests that topical betamethasone acts by affecting a fundamental feature of the inflammatory response common to all of the stimuli.