Immune control of functional memory CD8 T cells in normal-appearing vitiligo skin
- Laure Migayron
- Ribal Merhi
- Chloé Avril
- Simon Léonard
- Atika Zouine
- Fanélie Jouenne
- Sophie Gilardeau
- Claire Drullion
- Denis Thiolat
- Emilian Mertinaj
- Mélanie Humeau
- Adèle Mauroux
- Jean-Philippe Guégan
- Xavier Gauthereau
- Samia Mourah
- Thomas Darde
- Sylvie Bordes
- Brigitte Closs-Gonthier
- Julien Seneschal
- Katia Boniface
2025-12-10
Emerging evidence demonstrates that self-reactive CD8 + T resident memory cells (T RM cells) may already populate the never-lesional (NL) skin of patients with chronic inflammatory conditions, including vitiligo. However, their functional activity and regulation remain unknown. By combining cellular and transcriptomic approaches, we show that common CD8 + T cell clusters with a similar transcriptional profile infiltrate NL and peri-lesional (PL) skin of patients with vitiligo. Pathways related to immune activation were more active in T cells from PL skin, while those related to immune regulation were enriched in NL skin T cells, also evidenced by the stronger infiltration of regulatory T cells and the higher expression of programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) by CD8 + T cells in NL skin. Treatment of patients with baricitinib led to an increase in regulatory T cells and CD8 + T cells expressing PD-1 in repigmented skin. These findings suggest that functional T cells populate pigmented skin in vitiligo and highlight the importance of regulatory mechanisms to restrain their activation and prevent depigmentation.