Fast runners and lazy couch potatoes – the spectrum of migrating immune cells

Tim Lämmermann

Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics (MPI-IE), Freiburg, Germany
Interstitial migration of fast-migrating leukocytes (dendritic cells, neutrophilic granulocytes, lymphocytes) outside the vasculature relies almost exclusively on cell shape changes driven by the actomyosin cytoskeleton. This mode of amoeboid cell movement does not require integrin-mediated adhesions within tissues and is largely independent from the molecular composition of the environment. Our current work sets focus on the tissue dynamics and 3D movements of tissue-resident immune cells, including macrophages, and how their migration modes relate to the current paradigm of integrin-independent interstitial leukocyte migration.