Dermatitis Caused by Sponges
It has long been known that sponges, the most primitive pluricellular organisms, are not entirely innocuous. Some species can, in fact, cause serious skin reactions, induced by the spicules on the horny skeleton or by the toxins present on their surface o
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Dermatitis Caused by Sponges Domenico Bonamonte, Angela Filoni, Pietro Verni, and Gianni Angelini
Sponges, members of the Porifera phylum, class Demospongiae, normally lie stationary, attached to the sea bottom or sometimes the lake bottom. There are more than 10,000 species of sponges, that are highly variable as to shape, size and colour, ranging from practically invisible to 2 m in length and from pastel tones to bright hues: red, yellow, orange and blue (Fig. 7.1) [1–4]. Sponges are the most primitive pluricellular organisms, composed largely of epithelioid cells; the individual cells, known as choanocytes, are flagellated, have a considerable functional autonomy and do not form organs: they have no structure that could be compared to Metazoan structures. They generally possess a sac enclosing a cavity, named the spongocele. The external wall is studded with pores for the penetration of water and the nutrients: bacteria, unicellular seaweeds and organic particles. Sponges are thus filtering, microphagic animals with an endocellular digestive system. The walls of sponges also consist of calcareous and siliceous spikes of various shapes and of a lattice-like skeleton made of spongin, a scleroprotein. The bath sponges we use are nothing other than the skeletons of Porifera. Human use of sponges dates back to ancient Greek and Roman times, when those with a high content of spongin were adopted for washing and to pad helmets and armour, while harder ones were employed for abrasive purposes to clean parchment and various objects. Some sponges were used for therapeutic purposes: the ash D. Bonamonte, MD, PhD ( ) Associate Professor of Dermatology, Department of Biomedical Science and Human Oncology, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Bari, Italy e-mail: [email protected] A. Filoni, MD • P. Verni, MD University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Bari, Italy G. Angelini, MD Professor of Dermatology, Former Professor and Chairman, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Bari, Italy © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 D. Bonamonte, G. Angelini (eds.), Aquatic Dermatology, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40615-2_7
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Fig. 7.1 Euspongia officinalis (Courtesy of Drs. Filippo Massari and Fabrizio Frixa, Fotoarchivio G.R.O. Sub, Catania, Italy)
of Euspongia officinalis (Fig. 7.2) was employed to treat goitre, owing to its high iodine content ranging from 2 to 16 % of its weight. Natural sponges have now been virtually eliminated in favour of artificial ones. Sponges have long been known not to be entirely innocuous. The siliceous sponges of the Mediterranean, for instance, (Suberites domuncula is one of the most common) contain suberitin, a protein biotoxin with a neurotoxic and haemolytic action [5, 6]. Another highly toxic sponge for fish (which do not feed on sponges except in exceptional cases, and indeed go out of their way to avoid them) is Latruncula magnifica, a beautiful red sponge that lives at depths of 6–30 m in the Red Sea. Two toxins, latrunculin A and B have been isolated from this specie
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