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. 2015 Apr 21;10(4):e0125109. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0125109

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© 2015 Lood et al

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.

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Fig 1 — Nucleic acid-containing immune complexes (IC) are phagocytosed by plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDC) and induce large amounts of interferon (IFN)-alpha. IFN-alpha up-regulates the expression of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO), increasing the conversion of tryptophan to kynurenine and limiting the availability of tryptophan for serotonin synthesis. The produced serotonin is taken up by the platelet close to the enterochromaffin cells. Upon platelet activation, serotonin is released and consumed by immune cells to amplify the inflammatory environment together with ICs and IFN-alpha.