Md. Gorrell et al., THE DISTRIBUTION OF LYMPHOCYTE SUBPOPULATIONS IN NORMAL AND ACANTHOTIC OVINE SKIN, Veterinary immunology and immunopathology, 44(2), 1995, pp. 151-167
The prevalence and distribution of lymphocyte subpopulations in normal
and acanthotic ovine skin were investigated using monoclonal antibody
immunocytochemistry. CD8(+) cells were predominant in the epidermis o
f both normal and acanthotic skin, but were CD8(+) cells, CD4(+) cells
and T19(+) cells infrequent in normal epidermis, Within the dermis of
normal skin, there were significantly greater numbers of CD4(+) and T
19(+) cells situated around the superficial dermal vessels than in any
other region examined. The majority of the CD8(+) cells adjoined vess
els, but the proportion that did not was greater for CD8(+) than for C
D4(+) or T19(+) cells. The CD4(+) and CD8(+) subsets were represented
equally in adnexa. T cells were of memory phenotype, B cells and naive
T cells, both of which express the CD45RA antigen, were rarely seen a
nd tended to be associated with vessels in both normal and acanthotic
skin, None of the T19(+) cells (which are gamma delta(+)) resembled th
e dendritic gamma delta cells seen in murine epidermis. Acanthotic ski
n was strikingly different to normal skin, There was a greater abundan
ce of T cells, particularly CD4(+) cells, in acanthotic epidermis and
the numbers of CD8(+) and T19(+) cells, and to a greater extent CD4(+)
cells, were greater at the dermal-epidermal junction. There were more
CD4(+) and CD8(+) cells in the superficial dermal stroma of acanthoti
c skin. Within the dermis of acanthotic skin, T cells were concentrate
d near vessels but the apportioning of T cells between stromal/adnexal
and vessel-associated sites differed from normal. Such observations s
uggest that migration away from perivascular sites and into the stroma
may be controlled separately for subregions of skin and for each T ce
ll subset. The role of this altered nonrandom migration of T cells in
skin chronically exposed to ultra violet radiation is uncertain.