An April 2021 study by Duke School of Medicine and Wake Forest University and researchers in Mexico, Poland, Germany said,
"The skin cells themselves are sensory under certain conditions, specifically the outermost layer of cells, the keratinocytes,"
"The initial ideas were that it plays a role in how the skin is layered, and in skin barrier function,”
"But this current research is getting us into a more exciting territory of the skin actually moonlighting as a sensory organ.”
"If the itch comes up in PBC, it's so debilitating that the patients might need a new liver. That's how bad it can get,"