Visualizing Immune Cells in the Lymph Node

Visualizing Immune Cells in the Lymph Node

Sudha Kumari, Kelly Moynihan

MIT Department of Biological Engineering, MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Koch Institute at MIT

'Immunologically relevant' organs, such as the lymph nodes, are the sites in our body where major cellular action happens during an immune response- especially since these are the primary organs where T cells are trained to recognize and act upon the pathogens.

Using a chemical cocktail that renders the lymph node optically transparent, we are able to visualize the T cells (colored red) and B cells (green) in the lymph node (colored blue), derived from mice treated with anti-tumor vaccine. We aim to visualize the immune response, as the anti-tumor immunity is established. The technique of whole organ visualization is really useful in this regard, since using this we will be able to visualize, and perhaps even predict the most optimum cellular response, required for tumor clearance.

 

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