Immigrant IPCs (red) are found clustered near specialized venules (center) in inflamed lymph nodes.
IPCs, also called plasmacytoid dendritic cells (DCs), are the major producers of type I interferons and respond to virus infection using intracellular Toll-like receptors that bind viral RNA or DNA. During infection, IPCs accumulate in secondary lymphoid tissue where they boost the antiviral function of other cells, including natural killer cells and DCs, but how they gain entry into the lymph nodes had been a mystery until now.
Using intravital microscopy, which enables real-time viewing of cellular movement in vivo, Diacovo and colleagues showed how inflammation drives IPC migration into PLNs. The important players in this process were adhesion molecules called...
