The kinase p38α, originally identified because of its endotoxinand cytokine-inducible activity and affinity for antiinflammatory compounds, has been posited as a promising therapeutic target for various immune-mediated disorders. In clinical trials, however, p38α inhibitors produced adverse skin reactions and other toxic effects that often outweighed their benefits. Such toxicity may arise from a perturbation of physiological functions unrelated to or even protective against the disease being treated. Here, we show that the effect of interfering with p38α signaling can be therapeutic or adverse depending on the targeted cell type. Using a panel of mutant mice devoid of p38α in distinct cell types and an experimental model of allergic skin disease, we find that dendritic cell (DC)-intrinsic p38α function is crucial for both antigen-specific T-cell priming and T-cell-mediated skin inflammation, two independent processes essential for the immunopathogenesis. By contrast, p38α in other cell types serves to prevent excessive inflammation or maintain naïve T-cell pools in the peripheral lymphoid tissues. These findings highlight a dilemma in the clinical use of p38α inhibitors, yet also suggest cell-selective targeting as a potential solution for improving their therapeutic index.allergic contact dermatitis | contact hypersensitivity | hapten T he kinase p38α, the most abundant and ubiquitously expressed p38 MAP kinase isoform in mammals, was discovered based on its binding affinity for antiinflammatory compounds (1). The nature of the stimuli that elicited p38α activation and enabled its identification-proinflammatory cytokines, microbial products, and injurious environmental insultsalso hinted at a role for p38α in the immune and stress response (2-4). Pharmacological inhibition of p38α has since held promise for the treatment of allergic, autoimmune, and other diseases of inflammatory etiology. A series of recent clinical studies, however, revealed the frequent occurrence of adverse events, ranging from skin rashes to liver damage, after the use of p38α inhibitors (5-7). These toxicities limited the dose and frequency of p38α inhibitor treatment and have become a liability to fulfilling its promise as an effective therapeutic strategy.The therapeutic index is a relative measure of the efficacy versus toxicity of a treatment regimen. Toxic side effects have often been the cause of the failure of an otherwise effective therapeutic agent such as p38α inhibitors. We questioned whether the adverse effects of p38α inhibitors arose from interference with a physiological function of the protein kinase and, if so, whether the therapeutic and the adverse effects of p38α inhibition were based on distinct cell type-specific mechanisms. In this study, we used a mouse model of allergic contact dermatitis to examine the disease responses of conditional p38α knockout (KO) mice. In these mice, ablation of p38α expression was targeted to keratinocytes, myeloid cells, dendritic cells, or T cells, which represented a simulation of p38...