The effectiveness of vaccinations and immunotherapies depends on the periodic migration of immune cells from organs to lymph nodes, where these cells process and present foreign proteins to trigger immune responses against specific targets.
Immune function is at its peak just before the activity of the day starts - early morning in humans and mid-afternoon for nocturnal creatures like mice - as demonstrated in a study performed by scientists at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) in Switzerland and the Ludwigs-Maximilians University (LMU) in Germany.
The study focused on the migration of immune cells called dendritic cells from the skin to the lymph nodes that oscillates over a 24-hours period, providing evidence that the activation of the immune system is modulated according to the time of day, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News writes.
