Skin-resident dendritic cells mediate postoperative pain via CCR4 on sensory neurons.

Inflammatory pain, such as hypersensitivity resulting from surgical tissue injury, occurs as a result of interactions between the immune and nervous systems with the orchestrated recruitment and activation of tissue-resident and circulating immune cells to the site of injury. Our previous studies identified a central role for Ly6C myeloid cells in the pathogenesis of postoperative pain. We now show that the chemokines CCL17 and CCL22, with their cognate receptor CCR4, are key mediators of this response.