Deepening our understanding of immune sentinels in the skin
Frank O. Nestle, Brian J. Nickoloff
Frank O. Nestle, Brian J. Nickoloff
Published September 4, 2007
Citation Information: J Clin Invest. 2007;117(9):2382-2385. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI33349.
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Commentary

Deepening our understanding of immune sentinels in the skin

Abstract

Advances in our understanding of the skin immune system have a major impact on studies of skin autoimmunity, graft-versus-host disease, inflammation, and cancer as well as on the development of novel vaccines and immunotherapy approaches. In this issue of the JCI, Zaba et al. carefully dissected the complex network of DCs and macrophages residing in normal human skin and defined novel phenotypic markers for these immunocytes (see the related article beginning on page 2517). These studies provide the basis for better insight into the role of important immune sentinels contributing to the maintenance of skin tissue homeostasis and lay the foundation for future studies of the skin immune system.

Authors

Frank O. Nestle, Brian J. Nickoloff

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Figure 2

The spectrum of immune sentinels, portrayed in 2 dimensions, reflecting the heterogeneity and flexible functionality of the mononuclear subsets located in normal human dermis.

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The spectrum of immune sentinels, portrayed in 2 dimensions, reflecting ...
At one end of the spectrum are DDCs expressing BDCA-1 (also known as CD1c) and DC-SIGN (also known as CD209); at the other end are macrophages expressing CD163. Depending on the skin microenvironment and cellular activation state of the mononuclear cells, additional markers and flexible functionality may emerge between these ends of the spectrum, as reflected by expression of MHC class II antigen (i.e., HLA-DR), CD11c, FXIIIa, MMR (CD206), CD14, and varying degrees of phagocytic activity. At present, the physiological and pathological relevance for the recruitment of and phenotypic as well as functional interactions among these mononuclear cell subsets, not to mention the effector arms of the innate and adaptive immune system in the skin, is not completely understood.