Inflammatory Memory in Chronic Skin Disease
Joseph A. Daccache, Shruti Naik
Abstract
Inflammation is a hallmark of remitting-relapsing dermatological diseases. While a large emphasis has been placed on adaptive immune cells as mediators of relapse, evidence in epithelial and innate immune biology suggests that disease memory is widespread. Here we bring to fore the concept of inflammatory memory or non-specific training of long-lived cells in the skin, highlighting the epigenetic and other mechanisms that propagate memory at the cellular level. We place these findings in the context of Psoriasis, a prototypic flaring disease known to have localized memory and underscore the importance targeting memory to limit disease flares. Inflammation is a hallmark of remitting-relapsing dermatological diseases. While a large emphasis has been placed on adaptive immune cells as mediators of relapse, evidence in epithelial and innate immune biology suggests that disease memory is widespread. Here we bring to fore the concept of inflammatory memory or non-specific training of long-lived cells in the skin, highlighting the epigenetic and other mechanisms that propagate memory at the cellular level. We place these findings in the context of Psoriasis, a prototypic flaring disease known to have localized memory and underscore the importance targeting memory to limit disease flares.