Infographic: Salt and the immune system

Client: Technical University of Munich
Journal: Science Translational Medicine, Vol 11, Issue 480, 20 February 2019

Salty T cells

For Prof. Dr. med. Christina Zielinski, scientist at the Technical University of Munich, I was allowed to design an infographic for her publication in the journal Science Translational Medicine on the connection between allergic diseases and the salt content of the skin, which shows the difference between diseased and healthy skin.

The topic is highly complex. Roughly summarized, sodium chloride (see white crystals) can pathologically alter the ratio of the various T cells (see large turquoise and pink spheres) so that they can trigger allergic reactions. In this case, the TH2 type immune cells produce more cytokines (see small pink spheres), while other immune cells that could inhibit inflammation become fewer and hardly emit any cytokines (see small turquoise spheres). The result is that bacteria colonize (see purple balls on the skin), which grow and thrive particularly in a salty environment, for example Staphylococcus aureus, and trigger inflammation of the skin.

→ read abstract

Source:
Science Translational Medicine 20 Feb 2019:
Vol. 11, Issue 480, eaau0683
DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aau0683

Copyright:
© 2019 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science.
No claim to original U.S. Government Works