Decision-making at the surface of the intact or barrier disrupted skin: potential applications for vaccination or therapy.
The skin is a highly accessible organ and constitutes an active immunological site. Both these properties make this surface an attractive route for what promises to be a cost-effective, simple, practical and needle-free delivery of vaccines and immunomodulators. Less obvious is the fact that the state of the skin barrier can influence quantitative and qualitative aspects of antigen-specific immune responses. The everyday decision-making at the skin epithelium concerns the choice between the induction of an immune response and the establishment of a state of non-responsiveness (tolerance). This decision is influenced by various factors such as the dose, the route (intact vs barrier-disrupted skin), the cytokine microenvironment and the nature of the antigenic stimulus. By increasing our understanding of how immune responses are regulated in the epidermis we can envisage the development of immunisation protocols aimed at eliciting a protective immune response or inducing tolerance, with direct applications to preventive or therapeutic vaccination, respectively.
Partidos
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UPR 9021 CNRS, Institut de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, 15 rue René Descartes, 67084 Strasbourg, France. H.Partidos@ibmc.u-strasbg.fr
Muller
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D000279:Administration, Cutaneous; D000818:Animals; D000941:Antigens / Q000276:immunology; D002772:Cholera Toxin / Q000276:immunology; D004817:Epidermis / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007111:Immunity, Cellular; D015603:Keratinocytes / Q000276:immunology; D007801:Langerhans Cells / Q000276:immunology; D012867:Skin / Q000276:immunology*; D014611:Vaccination; D014612:Vaccines / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use
D000941:Antigens; D014612:Vaccines; D002772:Cholera Toxin