Epidermal Cytokines

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Abstract
The concept of the skin as an passive element in immune mediated reactions has been changed recently and it became clear that particularly the epidermis actively participates in various immunological processes. It is well established that dendritic bone marrow derived epidermal cells such as Langerhans cells play an important role in epidermal cell, antigen specific and allogenic T cell activation [1]. Another very recently discovered dendritic epidermal cell apparently belongs to the T cell lineage and exhibits natural killer cell activities [2]. Moreover it became evident that in addition to these immunocompetent epidermal cells the keratinocytes are capable of releasing immunoregulating mediators also named cytokines [3, 4].