UVB radiation preferentially induces recruitment of memory CD4+ T cells in normal human skin: long-term effect after a single exposure

Acute, low-doses of ultraviolet (UV)-B radiation affect the immune competent cells of the skin immune system. In this study, we examined the time-dependent changes of the cutaneous T cell population in normal human volunteers following a single local exposure to UV. Solar-simulated UV radiation caused an initial decrease in intraepidermal T cell numbers, even leading to T cell depletion at day 4, whereupon a considerable infiltration of T cells in the epidermis occurred that peaked at day 14. In the dermis the number of T cells was markedly increased at days 2 (peak) and 4 after irradiation, and subsequently declined to the nonirradiated control values at day 10. Double-staining with several T cell markers showed that the T cells, infiltrating the (epi)dermis upon UV exposure, were almost exclusively CD4+ CD45RO+ T cells, expressing an alpha/beta type T cell receptor, but lacking the activation markers HLA-DR, VLA-1, and IL-2R. Application of UVB radiation resulted in similar dynamics of T cells, indicating that the UVB wavelengths within the solar-simulated UV radiation were responsible for the selective influx of CD4+ T cells. In conjunction with UVB-induced alterations in the type and function of antigen-presenting cells (i.e., Langerhans cells and macrophages), the changes of the cutaneous T cell population may also contribute to UVB-induced immunosuppression at skin level in man.