Allergic contact dermatitis: a commentary on the relationship between T lymphocytes and skin sensitising potency

T lymphocytes mediate skin sensitisation and allergic contact dermatitis. Not unexpectedly, therefore, there is considerable interest in the use of T lymphocyte-based assays as alternative strategies for the identification of skin sensitising chemicals. However, in addition to accurate identification of hazards the development of effective risk assessments requires that information is available about the relative skin sensitising potency of contact allergens. The purpose of this article is to consider the relationships that exist between the characteristics of T lymphocyte responses to contact allergens and the effectiveness/potency of sensitisation. We propose that there are 3 aspects of T lymphocyte responses that have the potential to impact on the potency of sensitisation. These are: (a) the magnitude of response, and in particular the vigour and duration of proliferation and the clonal expansion of allergen-reactive T lymphocytes, (b) the quality of response, including the balance achieved between effector and regulatory cells, and (c) the breadth of response and the clonal diversity of T lymphocyte responses. A case is made that there may be opportunities to exploit an understanding of T lymphocyte responses to contact allergens to develop novel paradigms for predicting skin sensitising potency and new approaches to risk assessment.