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Published on: December 16, 2013
Vascularisation in adipose depots surrounding immune-stimulated lymph nodes
H A Macqueen1, V Waights, C M Pond
1Department of Biology, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK. h.a.macqueen@open.ac.uk
Abstract:
We report a change in the vascularisation of the adipose depots surrounding the popliteal lymph node that has, and the contralateral node that has not, been exposed to a simulated immune challenge. The percentage of the depot that consists of vessels, as measured by image analysis, decreases over a period of 2 d after immune stimulus, then increases in a biphasic manner over the next 2-3 wk. By 1 mo after the stimulus, the vascularisation has returned to baseline values. The adipose tissue surrounding both the stimulated and the unstimulated lymph nodes shows a similar pattern, but the unstimulated depot lags by 3-6 d in reaching its maximum vascularisation. These data support the hypothesis that perinodal adipose tissue is involved in peripheral immune responses.
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