Fig. 3

Resident and recruited pDC populations in the whole mouse body. At steady state, pDCs are widely distributed in the body, located in the indicated lymphoid organs (thymus, lymph node, spleen) and nonlymphoid tissues (eyes, liver, spleen and small intestine), as depicted here in mice. However, upon inflammation, pDCs can be recruited to other tissues (e.g., the brain, skin, lungs and large intestine), where their functions differ depending on the pathophysiological context. This knowledge should be extended in the future by performing whole-body cartography of pDC distribution using novel mouse models or tools allowing specific pDC detection in situ