Allergen applied to the skin during epicutaneous immunotherapy (EPIT) with Viaskin® patches was observed to induce tolerance in sensitized mice. Safety and eff icacy of Viaskin® Peanut in allergic patients has been studied in a recent phase 3 clinical program. In preliminary studies in sensitized mice, we showed that allergen delivered by Viaskin® is mainly taken-up by Langerhans cells (LCs) and transported to regional lymph nodes.
The aim of this study was to to evaluate the relevance of the in vitro skin model, SkinEthicTM RHE with Langerhans cells to determine whether similar allergen uptake occurred in human skin.