Immune Privilege and Alopecia Areata

April 2010 in “ Expert review of dermatology ”

Taisuke Ito, Masaharu Takigawa

TLDR Restoring immune privilege in hair follicles could help treat certain types of hair loss.

Hair follicles (HFs) exhibited immune privilege (IP) primarily through low expression of MHC class Ia antigens and local production of immunosuppressive agents, among other factors. This IP was present in the anagen stage of HF cycling and in the noncycling bulge area of human scalp HFs, supported by indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase and CD200. The collapse of HF IP likely contributed to the pathogenesis of alopecia areata and cicatricial alopecia. Restoring IP could be a promising therapeutic strategy for treating these hair-loss conditions.

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3 / 3 results

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