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Role of Dendritic Cells in the Infective Colour Transformation of Guinea Pig's Skin

Abstract

White skin from a spotted black and white guinea pig may be caused to turn black by grafting it to a pigmented area. Conversely, black skin grafted to a white area slowly blackens the white skin that surrounds it1,2. Recent experiments by Billingham and Medawar2 have set aside the possibility that the blackening reaction is the outcome of a mere diffusive process, or of a mass replacement of white epidermal epithelium by black. We have now examined the possibility, for various reasons unfairly belittled in our earlier communication, that the blackening reaction is due to the differential migration of melanoblasts from pigmented into unpigmented skin.

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BILLINGHAM, R., MEDAWAR, P. Role of Dendritic Cells in the Infective Colour Transformation of Guinea Pig's Skin. Nature 160, 61–62 (1947). https://doi.org/10.1038/160061b0

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