Skin damage can have systemic effects but whether it can result in the priming of immune responses that are spatially removed from the skin is less clear. Data now published in Science Immunology show that cytokines released from damaged skin can function as endocrine adjuvants to prime normally tolerogenic gastrointestinal immune responses to the model food antigen ovalbumin, thereby driving humoral responses in mice. This ‘remote priming’ was demonstrated by oral gavage of ovalbumin in combination with tape stripping to damage the skin and resulted in ovalbumin-specific antibody responses. The same allergic sensitization was shown by two other means of acute skin damage (punch biopsy or intradermal acetone injection), a model of chronic atopic dermatitis (using calcipotriol) and in response to ultraviolet radiation damage. Although the cytokine signatures varied with the different skin damage methods, the researchers used cytokine immunizations and various cell-specific knockout mice to show that the cytokines IL-33 and TSLP were sufficient to drive similar ovalbumin-specific antibody responses to skin damage, in part by activation of group 2 innate lymphoid cells.

Original reference: Sci. Immunol. 10, eadn0688 (2025)