Skin fat protects from skin infections
In a paper published in Science, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine reported that the fat cells below the skin help protect us from bacteria.
Lead researcher Richard Gallo and colleagues found a new function that the fat cells (adipocytes) beneath the skin do: they produce antimicrobial peptides that keep away the invading bacteria and other pathogens.
The human body’s defense against microbial infection is complex, multi-tiered and involves numerous cell types eventually leading to the arrival of white blood (neutrophils and monocytes) specialised cells that literally devour targeted pathogens. But before these circulating white blood cells arrive at the scene, the body requires a more immediate response to counter the ability of many microbes to rapidly increase in number and that work is done by epithelial cells, mast cells and leukocytes that reside in the area of infection.
Gallo said, ‘It was thought that once the skin barrier was broken, it was entirely the responsibility of circulating (white) blood cells like neutrophils and macrophages to protect us from getting sepsis,’ further adding, ‘but it takes time to recruit these cells (to the wound site). We now show that the fat stem cells are responsible for protecting us. That was totally unexpected. It was not known that adipocytes could produce antimicrobials.’
The clinical applications of the findings will require further study, said Gallo.
