Implications of the Inflammatory Role of Skin Dendritic Cells for Health, Disease and Forensic Practice

Dendritic cells (DCs) are specialized antigen presenting cells abundant in peripheral tissues such as skin. DCs are found in the dermis and in the epidermis (i.e. Langerhans cells) in the skin and they are bone marrow derived. It’s known that skin DCs migrate to the regional draining lymph node where they interact with naïve T cells to induce immune responses as acclaimed by the SALT concept proposed by J. Wayne Streilein.

The function of DCs as cutaneous sentinels and instigators of T cell responses suggests a key role for these cells in inflammatory skin diseases. Therefore, these cell types must be thoroughly studied in a variety of research areas applying different methods like histopathological, immunohistochemical, biochemical, and molecular biological analyses in the field of health and disease. Besides it should be highlighted that these cell types' unique traits can be helpful also in the forensic area, particularly the determination of wound age including wound vitality also whether they are viable for wound healing.

This Research Topic seeks to both outline the most recent theories in this intriguing area of study and to identify novel suggestions and concepts for forensic pathologists and professionals who have long been involved in determining the viability of lesions, meaning identifying if an injury was caused before or after death in order to establish with a significant probability that the injuries visible on a cadaver may have been the cause of death. With the collaboration of all of us this volume will strengthen and stimulate further research related to the role of skin dendritic cells in inflammation, wound age determination and forensic practice.

Keywords: Dendritic cells, skin inflammation, wound healing, lesion vitality, cellular infiltrate.

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