Bask in the sunlight to energise your immune cells

​New York: Apart from helping for a healthier living by producing vitamin D, getting some sunlight may also energise T cells -- immune cells -- that play a central role in fighting infections in the human body, a study has found.

The findings showed that the skin, which is the body's largest organ has a large share of T cells -- approximately twice the number circulating in the blood -- stays alert to the many microbes that can nest there.

While production of vitamin D requires ultra violet (UV) light -- known to promote skin cancer and melanoma, the low levels of blue light found in the sun's rays is safer and helps makes T cells move faster.

This blue light, which can reach the dermis -- the second layer of the skin -- enables the T cells to move throughout the body, the researchers stated.

In addition, the researchers also found that the synthesis of hydrogen peroxide -- a compound that white blood cells release when they sense an infection in order to kill bacteria and mount an immune response -- activates a signalling pathway to increase T cell movement.