Using lymph node transplantation as an approach to image cellular interactions between the skin and draining lymph nodes during parasitic infections

The growing use of protozoan parasites expressing fluorescent reporter genes, together with advances in microscopy, is enabling visualisation of their behaviour and functions within the host from the very earliest stages of infection with previously unparalleled spatiotemporal resolution. These developments have begun to provide novel insights, which are informing our understanding of where host immune responses may be initiated, which cells are involved and the types of response that are elicited. Here we will review some of these recent observations that highlight the importance of cellular communication between the site of infection and the draining lymph node (dLN) in establishing infection and immunity. We also highlight a number of remaining challenges and unknowns that arise through our inability to follow and fate map the journey of a single cell between spatially separated tissue sites. In response to these challenges, we review a recently described experimental strategy that extends the spatial and temporal limits of previous imaging approaches, most significantly allowing longitudinal analysis of cellular migration between the skin and draining lymph nodes in vivo, without the requirement for invasive surgery.