Researchers discovered that immune cells have a protective coating called heparan sulfate that normally helps prevent excessive inflammation. When skin inflammation occurs (like in psoriasis), this coating gets stripped away, allowing more immune cells to flood the affected area. Interestingly, trying to artificially preserve this coating backfired: it reduced problematic immune cell buildup but also blocked helpful regulatory immune cells, making inflammation worse overall.

Scientists studied mice with psoriasis-like skin inflammation, tracking how immune cells move to inflamed skin and testing whether a heparan sulfate-mimicking treatment could reduce unwanted immune cell recruitment.

Funding not disclosed in abstract