The study by Elisabeth Astrup examined the serum levels of CCL19 and CCL21 in patients with R. africae and R. conorii infection and in murine models of spotted fever rickettsiosis. The study is significant as it examines human immune responses to this important Rickettsial pathogen and confirms the results in suitable murine model. However, the study does not provide new information and the con...

How Tregs migrate to GCs, and whether they regulate the helper activity of the T cells in GCs (GC-Th cells) remains poorly understood. We found a T cell subset in human tonsils that displays potent suppressive activities toward GC-Th cell-dependent B cell responses. These Tregs with the surface phenotype of CD4+CD25+CD69- migrate well to CCL19, a chemokine expressed in the T cell zone, but poor...

The identification of chemokines has profoundly changed the way we interpret the immune response, elucidating the mechanism by which inflammatory cells are recruited to the site of infection by local secretion of chemoattractants such as CXC chemokine ligand 8 (CXCL8)/interleukin-8, chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2)/monocyte chemoattractant protein 1. This novel view of the immune response has been rem...

During human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, enhanced migration of infected cells to lymph nodes leads to efficient propagation of HIV-1. The selective chemokine receptors, including CXCR4 and CCR7, may play a role in this process, yet the viral factors regulating chemokine-dependent T cell migration remain relatively unclear. The functional cooperation between the CXCR4 ligand chemokin...

Resting CD4 + T cells latently infected with HIV are a major barrier to a cure and therefore antiretroviral therapy is required life-long. There are two major potential pathways leading to the establishment of latency. One pathway, which we refer to as postactivation latency, occurs with the reversion of an activated infected CD4 + T cell to the resting memory state with an integrated silenced ...

The chemokine receptor CCR7 is critical for the recirculation of naive T cells. It is required for T cell entry into secondary lymphoid organs (SLO) and for T cell motility and retention within these organs. How CCR7 activity is regulated during these processes in vivo is poorly understood. Here we show strong modulation of CCR7 surface expression and occupancy by the two CCR7 ligands, both in ...

Homeostatic chemokines participate in the development of secondary lymphoid organs and later on in the functional organization of these tissues. The development of lymph nodes (LNs) and Peyer's patches depends on the recruitment of CD3- CD4+ interleukin (IL)-7R alpha hi cells to sites of future organ development. CD3- CD4+ IL-7R alpha hi cells express the chemokine receptor CXCR5 and might be a...

Autoimmune pathologies are caused by a breakdown in self-tolerance. Tolerogenic dendritic cells (tolDC) are a promising immunotherapeutic tool for restoring self-tolerance in an antigen-specific manner. Studies about tolDC have focused largely on generating stable maturation-resistant DC, but few have fully addressed questions about the antigen-presenting and migratory capacities of these cells...

Psoriasis vulgaris is a complex disease characterized by alterations in growth and differentiation of epidermal keratinocytes, as well as a marked increase in leukocyte populations. Lesions are known to contain alterations in messenger RNAs encoding more than 1,000 products, but only a very small number of these transcripts has been localized to specific cell types or skin regions. In this stud...