Live Imaging of the Skin Immune Responses: Visualization of the Contact Hypersensitivity Response.

Abstract

A variety of immune cells are involved in cutaneous immune responses. Over the last decade, intravital imaging has become an important technique used to capture the dynamic behavior of immune cells in the physiological context. In this chapter, we describe essential techniques for visualizing immune cells in the skin, focusing on the contact hypersensitivity response. Using fluorescent dyes and transgenic reporter animals, many kinds of immune cells and skin components can be visualized in three dimensions and in a noninvasive manner.