New Skin Cell That Causes Itchy Skin Conditions Discovered

Understanding the factors that modulate immune cells in healthy and diseased skin is key to develop new effective treatments for atopic dermatitis and psoriasis.

A new cell type in human skin that contributes to inflammatory skin diseases such as atopic dermatitis (AD) and psoriasis (PSO) has been discovered by a team of international scientists and clinical experts. Their study findings are published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

The flaking and itchy skin caused by atopic dermatitis (AD), and psoriasis (PSO) can be very uncomfortable. To treat these inflammatory skin conditions, we must understand the mechanism behind these diseases.

Psoriasis About
Psoriasis is a recurrent and complex inflammatory skin disorder that can have tremendous physical and psychological impact on the sufferer

‘Atopic dermatitis and psoriasis are itchy skin conditions characterized by the presence of immune cells in the skin.’

As a part of understanding these skin conditions, Singapore Immunology Network collaborated with researchers at Skin Research Institute of Singapore (SRIS) and used single-cell flow cytometry and single-cell RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) approach to analyze immune cells in the human skin.

This combination of complex approaches generated an unbiased profile/landscape of immune cells mainly T cells in the skin - described their distinct molecular signatures and proportions in skin lesions of AD and PSO patients.

This uncovered fact that T cell-mediated immune dysregulation is central to the pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory skin diseases such as atopic dermatitis (AD), and psoriasis (PSO).

A Potentially New Treatment for Eczema
Treatment with bacteria naturally present on the skin can treat atopic dermatitis in adults and children.

This study finding suggests that targeting these immune cells might represent a novel therapeutic option in the treatment of PSO, and demonstrates the potential for the single-cell myeloid cell landscape database to provide important insights into skin biology in health and disease.

The role of immune cells in the development of inflammatory skin diseases remained unclear till now but this study revealed the functions of each T cell subset are very informative and valuable to understand the pathogenesis of atopic dermatitis and psoriasis.

Atopic Dermatitis / Eczema - Causes - Symptoms - Diagnosis - Treatment - FAQs
Atopic dermatitis is an inflammatory, non-contagious, chronic skin disorder that involves scaly and itchy rashes. It is also called eczema, dermatitis or atopy.

Researchers also expect that this study will lead to the design of new treatments for refractory inflammatory skin diseases.

Source-Medindia

Quiz on Skin Infections
Skin infections are caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasites. Factors such as injuries, poor hygiene, humidity, and weak immune system increase risk of skin infection.