About the Cover
COVER PICTURE: The antigen-specific immune response is governed by distinct interactions between lymphocytes and various accessory cells in peripheral lymphoid organs. The sequence of these interactions is tightly controlled in a temporal and spatial fashion. We isolated different preexisting multicellular clusters between lymphocytes and accessory cells and show that they represent the in vivo correlate of such distinct cell-cell interactions. As demonstrated for T cell-dendritic cell (DC) interactions, this approach allows a detailed analysis of such confined microenvironments. Shown are images of clusters prepared from the draining lymph nodes of CFA-immunized BL/6 mice 4-5 d after immunization. T cells (green) form clusters with CD11c-positive DCs (blue; top left panel); B cells (red) form tight clusters both with CD11c-positive DC (blue; bottom left panel) and M2-positive follicular DC (blue; top right panel); mixed B- (red) and T cell (green) cluster with CD11c-positive DCs (blue). Note that some B cells appear to attach to T cells rather than DCs (bottom right panel). See related article by Hommel and Kyewski,
(pp. 269-280).
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