[Analogies between the thymus and epidermis].

In this paper, similarities between epidermis and thymus are reviewed. Both epidermis and thymus deal with an epithelial stroma harbouring dendritic cells, which are bone-marrow derived. Both epithelia are keratinized, and a map can be constructed illustrating histo-topographic and antigenic similarities between thymic epithelial cells distributed in various thymic zones (i.e. subcapsular cortex, outer cortex, inner cortex, medulla, outer layers of Hassall's bodies, inner layers of Hassall's bodies) and keratinocytes of different epidermal layers. By contrast, a possible similarity between thymocytes and Langerhans cells is not so easy to demonstrate, although both cell types are CD1 positive. Rather, in our opinion a comparison is preferable of thymocytes to Thy-1 positive dendritic epidermal cells, due to morphological, antigenic, functional and especially lineage similarities. Similarities between thymus and epidermis are clearly important dealing with analogous molecular interactions, namely, thymic epithelial cells/thymocytes versus keratinocytes/T-lymphocytes. Indeed, our recent investigations demonstrated that a subset of keratinocytes is ICAM-1 positive, and the whole keratinocyte population is LFA-3 positive. Since the interaction thymic epithelial cells (ICAM-1 and LFA-3 positive)/thymocytes (LFA-1 and CD2 positive) has been shown to be necessary for promotion of activation and maturation of thymocytes, the interaction keratinocytes (ICAM-1 and LFA-3 positive, as we demonstrated)/T-lymphocytes (LFA-1 and CD2 positive as well) might be, by analogy, important not only for the "homing" of T-lymphocytes within the epidermis, but also for the epidermis being considered a peripheral inductive site for T-cell activation and maturation.