JUST THE BASICS

This cartoon is about how the immune system recognizes allergens. Langerhans cells (in this cartoon, our waiter) live in the skin and monitor for any signs of danger. If they detect that something is amiss, they take a sample of whatever is causing trouble and travel to the nearest lymph node, where they present it to T cells (in this cartoon, the wine tasters). T cells coordinate how the immune system responds to a threat - mount an attack or ignore it!

TELL ME SOMETHING NERDY

The fictional dinner special is called Epidermis all’ Arrabbiata, which means “angry skin”, and the wine sample came from the antecubital region, a common place for eczema to flare up. These clues suggest that the T cells in this cartoon are more likely to react to the peanut and milk sample because it came from eczematous skin.

While we don’t fully understand why people develop allergies, eczema is a known risk factor. Imagine all the stuff that touches your skin on a daily basis – lotions, pollens, dust, food particles… now imagine your skin is inflamed and irritated and your immune system is trying to fix it. It makes sense that the immune system would see these things and think, “Hmm, maybe this lotion/peanut/pollen is causing all this trouble. I’d better take a sample and let my T cell friends know!” If the conditions are right, this can lead to the development of allergies.

Published in May 2022 Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anai.2021.12.001