A ten-year study of mice and human tissue has revealed that a protein plays a major role in the itchy skin condition of eczema and raises the prospect of new treatments beyond the standard steroid creams currently used.

Writing in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, scientists from an international team led by Manchester University showed that Sbi - the second immunoglobin-binding protein - triggers eczema by causing the release of another protein known to disrupt the structure of skin cells.