Possible culprit behind eczema and allergic skin diseases identified

London, April 23 (ANI): A new type of immune cell in skin that plays a role in fighting off parasitic invaders such as ticks, mites, and worms, and could be linked to eczema and allergic skin diseases has been discovered.

Researchers from the Immune Imaging and T cell Laboratories at the Centenary Institute worked with colleagues from SA Pathology in Adelaide, the Malaghan Institute in Wellington, New Zealand and the USA.

The new cell type is part of a family known as group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2), which was discovered less than five years ago in the gut and the lung, where it has been linked to asthma.

But this is the first time such cells have been found in the skin, and they are relatively more numerous there.

"Our data show that these skin ILC2 cells can likely supress or stimulate inflammation under different conditions. They also suggest a potential link to allergic skin diseases," said Dr Ben Roediger, a research officer in the Immune Imaging Laboratory at Centenary headed by Professor Wolfgang Weninger.

The Weninger lab, which has developed techniques for marking different cells of the immune system and tracking them live under the microscope, actually discovered the new dermal cells some years back.

The Centenary researchers, however, suspected they might be associated with type 2 immunity, the part of the immune system that deals with infection by parasitic organisms. So they contacted Professor Graham Le Gros at the Malaghan Institute, one of the world's foremost researchers into type 2 immunity.

Not only did Professor Le Gros and his team confirm that the Centenary researchers had found a new form of ILC2 cell, but they were able to provide a new strain of mouse developed in the USA that provided insight into the function of these cells.

"Using these mice, we found that ILC2 cells were the major population in the skin that produced interleukin 13, a molecule that has been linked to a number of allergic diseases, including eczema." Roediger said.

Using their sophisticated live imaging techniques, the Centenary researchers were also able to watch the behaviour of the ILC2 cells in the skin, where they moved in a characteristic way-in random spurts punctuated by stoppages.

Here is the original post:
Possible culprit behind eczema and allergic skin diseases identified