Eosinophil extracellular DNA traps in skin diseases
Simon D, Hoesli S, Roth N et al.
Eosinophils are often found in increased numbers in the skin of patients with infectious diseases. Recent evidence has also indicated that eosinophils release mitochondrial DNA as an antibacterial defence mechanism. The current authors investigated whether the extracellular structures containing this DNA are able to bind and kill bacteria that reside under the skin’s surface under pathological conditions. They found that this is the case in many allergic and autoimmune diseases.