Skin cells make antibodies, too

[SeymourB]

I was stunned to learn that cells other than B-cells make antibodies. But Mother Nature did not specialize.

IgG and IgA with Potential Microbial-Binding Activity Are Expressed by Normal Human Skin Epidermal Cells Int J Mol Sci. 2015 Jan 23;16(2):2574–2590. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articl...

"In this study, we report the expression of functional immunoglobulin G (IgG) and immunoglobulin A (IgA), previously thought to be only produced by B cells, in normal human epidermal cells and the human keratinocyte line HaCaT. While B cells express a fully diverse Ig, epidermal cell-expressed IgG or IgA showed one or two conservative VHDJH rearrangements in each individual. These unique VDJ rearrangements in epidermal cells were found neither in the B cell-derived Ig VDJ databases published by others nor in our positive controls. IgG and IgA from epidermal cells of the same individual had different VDJ rearrangement patterns. IgG was found primarily in prickle cells, and IgA was mainly detected in basal cells. Both epidermal cell-derived IgG and IgA showed potential antibody activity by binding pathogens like Staphylococcus aureus, the most common pathogenic skin bacteria, but the microbial-binding profile was different. Our data indicates that normal human epidermal cells spontaneously express IgG and IgA, and we speculate that these Igs participate in skin innate immunity."

"In addition, several groups including us have reported that human malignant squamous cells, including esophageal, lung cancer and oral carcinoma, together with normal oral squamous cells adjacent to the tumors, frequently stained for IgG or IgA [5,19,31]. Based on these findings, we proposed that Ig molecules could be expressed in the epidermis and might provide antimicrobial activity."

The paper has been cited by 29 other papers covering similar topics:

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?li...

They had to stain the cells to seem them, so I think these are membrane bound antibodies, like in normal B-cells, and not serum antibodies expressed by plasma B-cells. So they don't show up in immunoglobulin counts.

=seymour=

[Spark_Plug]

Lightning! I was reading about the classes of interferons and thought I read epithelial cells and because I was skimming thought, "No, you read that wrong". Of course did I re-read it no SMH.

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator]

Here's where this was first raised healthunlocked.com/cllsuppo...

It was in respect to Staphylococcus aureus infections (boils) healthunlocked.com/cllsuppo... that the immunologist to which my CLL specialist referred me made the comment about skin IgA.

Neil

[SeymourB in reply to AussieNeil]

AussieNeil -

I didn't remember replying to the previous thread. I thought I had dreamed it. Shall I delete this thread?

=seymour=

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator in reply to SeymourB]

This is worthy of its own post

[Smakwater]

SeymoreB "Stunned"

Tip of the iceberg! No one should be bored, right?

I enjoyed the read, and I love your enthusiasm for knowledge.

JM

[BigDee]

Hello SeymourB

Good to know we now have a little "skin in the game". 😄

[SeymourB in reply to BigDee]

BigDee -

😅

I think there are also tissue resident B-cells in the skin. After my treatment, I no longer tested positive for pollen allergies. I suspect therapy killed the tissue resident cells. I'm waiting to see if my allergies come back when my B-cells recover.

So, Nature has multiple ways of avoiding blood tests. 😅

=seymour=