The roles of human skin resident memory T cells in skin diseases

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K19705
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Dermatology
• Research Institution: University of Tsukuba
• Principal Investigator: Hosokawa Rei (渡辺玲) 筑波大学, 医学医療系, 講師 (60463866)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 皮膚T細胞 / resident memory T細胞 / 皮膚免疫

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The investigator isolated skin T cells from psoriasis, fixed drug eruption, discoid lupus erythematosus, systemic sclerosis patients and normal control, and compared the phenotype of skin T cells by flow cytometry anaysis. In psoriasis, CD103 positive CD8 resident memory T cells were found enriched both in lesion and nonlesion. These T cells, even in nonlesional sites, turned out to already possess a potential of IL-17A and are consideared to construct a "ready to go" condition in nonlesional skin. In disoid lupus erythematosus and dixed drug eruption, the investigator assumed the strong relation of resident memory T cells. However, the isolated T cells turned out to possess central memory phenotype. This result supports the idea that central memory T cells can also survey the peripheral tissues and can be converted to resident memory T cells once they enter into peripheral tissues. The investigator will track the change of the same clones to determine the change of T ell phenotype.

Free Research Field

皮膚科学