More than skin deep: New layer to the body’s fight against infection
The single cell type that was thought to be behind the skin’s immune defense has been found to have a doppelganger, with researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute showing the cells, despite appearing identical, are actually two different types. Institute scientists Dr Michael Chopin, Dr Stephen Nutt and colleagues from the institute’s Molecular Immunology division have been investigating Langerhans cells, the immune cells that provide the first line of defense against attacks through the skin. Until recently, scientists believed that, because they looked identical, all Langerhans cells were also genetically identical and had the same function…