Maintenance of Hair Follicle Immune Privilege Is Linked to Prevention of NK Cell Attack

December 2007 in “ Journal of Investigative Dermatology ”

Taisuke Ito, Natsuho Ito, Matthias Saatoff, Hideo Hashizume, Hidekazu Fukamizu, Brian J. Nickoloff, Masahiro Takigawa, Ralf Paus

hair follicles immune privilege natural killer cells MHC class I macrophage migration inhibitory factor alopecia areata autoimmune disease NK cell inhibition HFs IP NK cells AA

TLDR Hair follicles prevent NK cell attacks to avoid hair loss.

The study investigated the role of immune privilege (IP) in hair follicles (HFs) and its link to preventing natural killer (NK) cell attacks, particularly in alopecia areata (AA). It found that normal anagen HFs express high levels of macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF), which inhibits NK cells, but this is reduced in AA-affected HFs, leading to increased NK cell attacks. The study involved 5 control patients and 8 AA patients, as well as peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 10 healthy controls, 10 atopic dermatitis patients, and 15 AA patients. The findings suggested that maintaining IP by regulating MIF and other factors could be crucial in preventing autoimmune diseases like AA, emphasizing the importance of controlling NK cell activity to preserve IP.

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