Figure 2.

Distribution and migration of pulmonary DCs. Subsets of DCs are widely distributed throughout the lung, and segregate into unique niches that vary by lung compartment. In the upper respiratory tract, CD103⁺ DCs mainly reside in the mucosal wall and extend processes into the airway lumen in between epithelial cells. CD11b⁺ DCs and pDCs are mainly located underneath the basement membrane. After maturation, both CD103⁺ DCs and CD11b⁺ DCs can migrate to lymph nodes (LNs) via lymphatics and present antigens to T cells. CD103⁺ DCs are the migratory subsets that populate LNs.