γδ T Cell‒Mediated Wound Healing Is Diminished by Allergic Skin Inflammation

Atopic dermatitis results in profound changes in the function of the skin that include diminished barrier function and altered production of antimicrobial peptides. Our previous work in a model of allergic skin inflammation identified a defect in the wound healing process that was dependent on IL-4. In this report, we show that allergic skin inflammation results in a dramatic decrease in the presence of the Vγ3+ dendritic epidermal T-cell (DETC) population of γδ T cells in the skin. In mice that express an active signal transducer and activator of transcription 6 in T cells, DETCs are lost early in life. The loss of DETCs is entirely dependent on IL-4 and is recovered with a genetic deficiency of IL-4. Moreover, injection of IL-4 into wild-type mice results in acute loss of the DETC population. A similar loss of DETCs was observed in mice treated topically with MC903. Wounding of skin from Stat6VT-transgenic or MC903-treated mice resulted in decreased production of DETC-dependent cytokines in the skin, coincident with diminished wound closure. Importantly, intradermal injection of the DETC-produced cytokine fibroblast GF 7 rescued the rate of wound closure in mice with allergic skin inflammation. Together, these results suggest that the atopic environment diminishes prohealing T-cell populations in the skin, resulting in attenuated wound healing responses.