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. 2022 Jun 30;11(13):2082. doi: 10.3390/cells11132082

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Melanocytes in skin immunity. Melanocytes located strategically in the epidermis act as an external barrier to pathogenic threats. They express many different pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) and mobilize their innate immune function and initiate the inflammatory cascade after activating PRRs. Subsequently, melanocytes trigger signal pathways and secrete interferons (such as IFN-α and IFN-β), inflammatory cytokines, and chemokines, such as interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-10, IL16, TNF-α, CCL2, CCL20, CXCL8, and CXCL12. On the other hand, melanocytes are capable of phagocytosis of pathogens, then processing and presenting antigen to CD4+ T-cell clones in an antigen-specific and MHC class II-restricted manner, indicating that melanocytes function as nonprofessional antigen-presenting cells. The figure was created using BioRender.