A recent study shows that a daily moderate exposure to sunlight can boost the immune system protection against sun-induce skin damage and pathogens. The research highlights how immune cells become specialised in protecting the skin. It is thus suggested that abstaining from sunlight can be harmful if done to extensively.
Particular immune cells known as T cells are responsible to combat infection as well as protect one from cancer. However, these cells must be aware of the threat in order to eliminate it. Another group of cells known as dendritic cells inform T cells about infected and/or damaged cells. The T cells will thereafter evaluate whether these foreign pieces need to be removed. If the T cells find a need for removal of these infected cells, then it will reproduce an army of clones so as to hunt down infected cells present in the body.
The human body is a complex and large puzzle. Scientists have since long been thinking whether T cells have other receptors. Some studies conducted on the gut propose that dendritic cells discharge a particular chemical that helped the T cells to find particular regions in the intestine.
Many scientists have been eager to find whether something similar occurs to our skin. Eugene Butcher, an immunologist of Stanford University together with her colleagues found some stunning information. It was found that skin cells required sunlight to create a “static” form of vitamin D. Since long, scientists and biologists have believed that vitamin D derived from sunlight to be active and utilizable for the body. It appeared that the vitamin D had to be processed by the liver and kidney.
However, Butcher’s team demonstrated that this same process could be accomplished through dendritic cells present in the skin. They permitted the inertia vitamin D to reach T cells. This boosted a mechanism that led to the production of specific skin chemokines receptors. More elaborately, modified T cells assure that the outer layer of the skin is protected. They eliminated defected and infected cells, this was reported in a previous issue of Nature Immunology.
According to Butcher, not much sunlight is required for the process to be initiated. The research concludes that the sun is good for our skin. A moderate amount of sunlight will give the body enough vitamin D required. Nonetheless, extensive exposure to the sun puts one at the peril of skin cancer.
According to Chantal Mathieu, from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, the research was very important. There have been various studies showing hints of this mechanism but no singly study did successfully make any sense out of it.
Source: Science Magazine
Tue, Jun 29, 2010
Anti Aging, Bioscience