IHALT unlocks liver functionality as a surrogate secondary lymphoid organ.

ABSTRACT: Upon viral infection, the current paradigm of humoral immunity posits that germinal centre reactions occurring within secondary lymphoid organs (SLOs) yield effector plasma cells that subsequently traffic to infected organs or the bone marrow^1-3. However, it is not well understood how viral tissue tropism may govern the spatiotemporal dynamics of such responses. Here we demonstrate that infection with a prototypical systemic virus indeed induces liver-trafficking plasma cells generated in SLOs, whereas strictly hepatotropic hepaciviral infection elicits locally primed, virus-specific plasma cells in the liver independently of SLO contribution. Such locally derived progenies emerged from inducible hepatic-associated lymphoid tissue (iHALT) structures containing generative foci of

SUBMITTER: Gridley J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12823446 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature