Research Area B

Immune cross-talk in skin

The signals generated in the epidermis and dermis are captured and transported by skin emigrating DC. However, DC are influenced by factors released by stromal cells and other inflammatory cells such as keratinocytes, mast cells and neutrophils. The composition of these triggers results in transport and differentiation signals, addressed by Grabbe/Bros, Mahnke, Eberle/Ghoreschi. This also includes the translation of DC responses into adaptive T cell responses and their differentiation (Eberle/Ghoreschi, Probst/Schild, Samstag). Furthermore, the role of non-classical immune cells such as keratinocytes and neutrophils as effector, modulator and target cells of immune functions in skin is analyzed (Samstag, Weber/Hartl, Röcken/Yazdi). A special focus will be the intrinsic modulation of keratinocyte responses to T- or DC-derived cytokines as addressed by Röcken/Yazdi and Samstag.