IL-13 in dermal type-2 dendritic cell specialization: From function to therapeutic targeting

Skin functions as a barrier protecting the host against physical, thermal, chemical changes as well as microbial insults. The skin is populated by several immune cell types that are crucial to host defense and to maintain self-tolerance as well as equilibrium with beneficial microbiota. Conventional dendritic cells (cDCs) are antigen-presenting cells that patrol the skin and all other nonlymphoid tissues for self or foreign antigens, and then migrate to draining lymph nodes to initiate T-cell responses. This review article describes recent developments on skin cDC specialization, focusing on the role of IL-13, a cytokine essential to allergic immune responses that is also secreted at steady state by type-2 innate lymphoid cells in healthy skin, and is required for dermal cDC differentiation. Furthermore, we contextualize how different therapeutics that block IL-13 signaling and were recently approved for the treatment of atopic dermatitis might affect cDCs in human skin.