title: Innate immunity stimulates permeability barrier homeostasis.
abstract: A key function of the skin is to provide a permeability barrier to restrict the movement of water, electrolytes, and other small molecules between the outside environment and the internal milieu. Following disruption of the permeability barrier, there is a rapid restoration of barrier function, and one of the key signals initiating this repair response is a decrease in the concentration of calcium in the outer epidermis. In this issue, Borkowski et al. present evidence showing that activation of Toll receptor 3 by double-stranded RNA may be another pathway for activation of permeability barrier repair. These results provide further evidence for a link between innate immunity and the permeability barrier.
authors.affiliation: Metabolism Section (111F), Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94121, USA. kenneth.feingold@ucsf.edu
authors.forename: Kenneth R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Feingold
mesh_terms: D004817:Epidermis / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D015603:Keratinocytes / Q000502:physiology*; D050356:Lipid Metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D015388:Organelles / Q000378:metabolism*; D051196:Toll-Like Receptor 3 / Q000235:genetics*; D014945:Wound Healing / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: C495344:TLR3 protein, human; D051196:Toll-Like Receptor 3