The Reticular Cell Network: A Robust Backbone for Immune Responses

Lymph nodes are meeting points for circulating immune cells. a network of reticular cells that ensheathe a mesh of collagen fibers crisscrosses the tissue in each lymph node. this reticular cell network distributes key molecules and provides a structure for immune cells to move around on. during infections,the network can suffer damage. a new study has now investigated the network’s structure in detail,using methods from graph theory. the study showed that the network is remarkably robust to damage: it can still support immune responses even when half of the reticular cells are destroyed. this is a further important example of how network connectivity achieves tolerance to failure,a property shared with other important biological and nonbiological networks. © 2016 textor et al.