In recent years our main advances include the following:

1. Role of CD8+ T cells in the initiation of the skin inflammation. Our results show that CD8+ T cells are effector cells of skin allergy expressing as eczemas (allergic contact dermatitis [ACD] and atopic dermatitis) and drug allergies. We reported that CD8+ T cells are in fact mandatory for the initiation of the inflammatory skin response [Vocanson M et al. Allergy. 2009,64:1699 ; Hennino A et al. J Immunol, 2007, 178:5571 ; Akiba H et al. J Immunol 2002, 168:3079 ; Kehren J et al. J Exp Med, 1999, 189:779].

2. Characterization of regulatory T cells that control skin inflammation. We showed that CD4+ T reg cells control the expansion and activation of effector T cells in allergic diseases and that the development of the diseases might occur in the case of an imbalance between effector and regulatory T cells. On the basis of different phenotype markers, we demonstrated that the priming of CD8+ T cells is chiefly controlled by a concomitant but independent activation of a discret Treg subset, endowed with highly suppressive activity in vitro [Vocanson M et al. J Allergy Clin Immunol, 2010, 126: 280; Rozieres A et al. Curr Opin Allergy Clin Immunol. 2009;9:305; Vocanson M et al. Allergy. 2009]

3. Development of new diagnosis assays including screening methods for compounds endowed with allergenic properties and immunobiological diagnostic assays in drug allergy:

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