Abstract
Abstract
The skin is the largest barrier organ in the human body. The anatomy and composition of the human skin enables it to perform its function to protect us from external environmental challenges, including ultraviolet irradiation, temperature variation, mechanical force and microbial challenge. This chapter details our understanding of the cellular components of the human skin including the immune cells that form the skin immune network in health, following perturbation and skin disease. We chart the advancement in our knowledge of the human skin through the application of a range of technological platforms from immunohistochemistry to cutting‐edge single cell and spatial omics technologies. The chapter summarises our understanding of how the skin immune network interfaces with systemic immune responses via the peripheral blood circulation and lymphatic drainage from the skin to draining lymph nodes. In addition, we address the differences between the human and mouse skin immune networks, the role of the microbiota in health and disease as well as recent concepts of inflammation that have altered our understanding of homeostasis, repair and healing and disease.