People with tattoos often have to answer the question: "Is it for life?" In most cases, the answer is positive, unless, of course, a person in the future wants to remove the pattern from his skin.
©Depositphotos / When ink is applied to the deeper layers of the skin, colored pigment eats special cells - macrophages.
In this case, over time, even high-quality tattoos fade, but do not completely disappear. For a long time it was believed that this constancy is ensured by the fact that the ink is embedded in the deeper layers of the skin (derma), which do not regenerate. However, French scientists have found that the matter is quite different.
It turns out that after applying the ink a colored pigment eats special skin cells - macrophages. They are present in almost every organ and tissue, where they act at the forefront of immune protection, fighting off pathogens and devouring bacteria, and at the same time the remains of dead cells and particles foreign to the body.
The fact that it is the macrophages "eat" including pigment tattoos was discovered a few years ago. Then the researchers decided that these immune cells then simply remain in place, thus ensuring the constancy of the pattern on the skin.
However, in the course of the new work, immunologists found out that macrophages nevertheless die off, but before that, they "inherit" that pigment from their successors. That is why it seems that the tattoo almost does not change.
The authors explain: when the needle pierces the skin to leave ink in it, the protective cells immediately contract to the "wounded" place. It is there that they eat paint particles; probably taking them for alien pathogens from the environment, (it is proved that tattoos introduce dangerous nanoparticles into the body).
However, how to understand what happens to the "eaten" pigment, if the macrophage dies? To find out for sure, researchers have created genetically modified mice. They tattooed their tails and then killed macrophages in the deeper layers of the skin and some other tissues by injecting a special solution.
It turned out that within a few weeks, other, developed from myocyte progenitor cells, replaced the killed protective cells. As a result, the appearance of tattoos on the tails of rodents is almost unchanged (the photo below shows the tails of mice before and after the death of macrophages).
Tests have shown that dead macrophages release pigments into the environment, but these particles do not have time to dissipate: they are quickly found and swallowed by a new generation of macrophages. In addition, such a cycle “pigment-release-new-capture” occurs constantly in the layers of tattooed skin.
There was another interesting experiment: the researchers transplanted a portion of tattooed skin from the tail of one mouse to the tail of another, which was "clean". After six weeks, scientists checked the cells of the dermis, and it turned out that most of the macrophages containing pigments were no longer donor, but "relatives" In other words, the macrophages of the first mouse "inherited" the eaten particles of ink from macrophages from the new organism.
Experts believe that this knowledge can be used to create new methods for tattoo removal. In particular, laser surgery should be combined with temporary inhibition of the activity of dermal macrophages. As a result, the pigment particles will not be absorbed by new macrophages, but will gradually begin to "merge" along the lymphatic vessels, and then the drawing will most likely disappear without a trace.
True, there is one drawback: when blocking macrophages, the skin and muscle tissues will remain for a time without protection, so the authors of the idea have yet to prove not only the effectiveness, but also the safety of this approach.
Current work is described in more detail in an article published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.
The illustrations are used in agreement with the Depositphotos photobank
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