A new paper out of the Rasmussen lab was accepted at Cell Reports for the May 28 issue. This study was led by postdoc Eric Peterman with contributions from other lab members: Elgene Quitevis (research tech) and Camille Goo (research tech). This paper examines the role of actin and ROCK in several types of damage responses by innate immune cells in the skin.
Summary from Cell Reports:
Skin damage requires efficient immune cell responses to restore organ function. Epidermal-resident immune cells known as Langerhans cells use dendritic protrusions to surveil the skin microenvironment, which contains keratinocytes and peripheral axons. The mechanisms governing Langerhans cell dendrite dynamics and responses to tissue damage are poorly understood. Using skin explants from adult zebrafish, we show that Langerhans cells maintain normal surveillance following axonal degeneration and use their dendrites to engulf small axonal debris. By contrast, a ramified-to-rounded shape transition accommodates the engulfment of larger keratinocyte debris. We find that Langerhans cell dendrites are populated with actin and sensitive to a broad-spectrum actin inhibitor. We show that Rho-associated kinase (ROCK) inhibition leads to elongated dendrites, perturbed clearance of large debris, and reduced Langerhans cell migration to epidermal wounds. Our work describes the dynamics of Langerhans cells and involvement of the ROCK pathway in immune cell responses.
Read the paper in Cell Reports.
Congratulations to all!