Role of Langerhans Cells in Cutaneous Immunological Reactions

Abstract

The origin and function of Langerhans cells (LC) have been a matter of conjecture and theory ever since their discovery by Paul Langerhans in 1868. For many decades, attempts were made to fit the dendritic LCs into one of two already established systems of dendritic cells. One group of authors favored Langerhans’ suggestion that the dendritic “clear cells” he had discovered in the epidermis are neural in nature (Ferreira-Marques, 1951; Wiedmann, 1952; Niebauer, 1956; Richter, 1956), while the other group (Billingham and Medawar, 1953; Fan and Hunter, 1958; Fan et al., 1959) followed Masson’s view (1951) that these cells are worn out, i.e., “effete,” melanocytes.