Papers of the Week

Pain, temperature and itch are conventionally thought to be exclusively transduced by the intraepidermal nerve endings. While recent studies have shown that epidermal keratinocytes also participate in sensory transduction, the mechanism underlying keratinocyte communication with intraepidermal nerve endings remains poorly understood. We sought to demonstrate the synaptic character of the contacts between keratinocytes and sensory neurons and their involvement in sensory communication between keratinocytes and sensory neurons.