Tats Off: Targeting the Immune System May Lead to Better Tattoo Removal

Tats Off: Targeting the Immune System May Lead to Better Tattoo Removal

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The tattoo implantation craze is increasing day by day. People who are getting it are told by professionals that a tattoo is inked for life. It is beautifully etched into the layer of skin just below the epidermis, but when someone wants to remove it from the skin, it becomes a troublesome job. Laser Tattoo removal treatments are available in the market but they are emotionally and economically draining. Consume a lot of time and money and-often fail to give the desired results.

A new discovery was made by the scientists that may change the entire situation: The new discovery talked about the cellular processes that make ink pigments so persistent, offering a new method of removing tattoos effectively.

According to a research team in France, blocking the macrophages of the immune system can remove the tattoo permanently. Macrophages are cells that find and digest cellular debris, microbes, and other foreign bodies.

Immunologists researched the origin of these skin macrophages to understand the behavior of these cells and the interaction with other immune cells present in the skin. Tattoos were not the main area of study of their research, but their new study suggests they may have invented something that may impact the future of ink removal: They found that mice with black coats have a specific type of skin macrophage that digest pigment particles after the cells storing those particles die off. Follow-up experiments suggested that macrophages could play an important role in absorbing particles of tattoo ink.

The first team worked on proving that macrophages ingest the tattoo pigment. They genetically formed a strain of mice to have skin macrophages containing diphtheria toxin receptors; this gave an opportunity to the researchers to select and kill the mice with the toxin. After this step, they applied a tattoo on the animals’ tails with green fluorescent ink and examined different sections of the tattooed skin under a microscope to check if the ink particles were ingested by the macrophages. Then the scientists exposed the animals to diphtheria so that they can kill those cellular trash collectors.

The macrophages died as expected by the researchers, but they were surprised to see the ink pigments for many months—even after all the macrophages that ingested the ink particles were replaced.

Another experiment was done wherein tattooed tail skin was grafted onto the backs of albino mice. After six weeks, the cells in the graft died, but the ink pigment remained on the skin.

How can this be possible? The researchers said that the tattoos remained because the ink pigment was ingested by one macrophage after another: When one died, it released the ink particles it was storing.

Then another macrophage comes along, cleared the cellular debris, and ingested the particles.

The fact is that the macrophages do not move within the skin so the tattoo remained pretty stable. The pigment particles inside the tattoo ink are quite big—due to which they can’t be drained into the lymph nodes via the lymphatic vessels. So, when the dying macrophages released the pigment, they could not move and remained stuck until another macrophage ingested them.

One of the immunologists, Simon Yona, who was not a part of this research praised the way scientists research animals. Nobody knows how the ink particles stay inside the skin for years. But this study identified cells that ingest the ink particles. It is an exciting study that has scope in the future.

Scientists are on their way to developing a method to deliver scientific instructions to specific immune cells and they are planning to work in association with dermatologists on the next stages of their work.

Scientists believe that laser tattoo removal Sydney-based can be improved if worked in conjunction with the temporary inhibition of skin macrophage function. With this approach, ink pigments broken down by the laser would not be immediately ingested by macrophages—increasing the chances of their drainage via the lymphatic vessels.

With the advancement in science and technology comes risk factor also. This new study will need rigorous safety testing—because blocking the functionality of macrophage cells may increase the recovery process and also led to impairment of regeneration of skeletal muscle.