TY - JOUR T1 - Influence of the Fibroblastic Reticular Network on Cell-Cell Interactions in Lymphoid Organs A1 - Graw, Frederik A1 - Regoes, Roland R. Y1 - 2012/03/22 N2 - Author Summary The interaction between lymphocytes and antigen presenting cells or infected cells is thought to be enhanced by the complex microarchitecture of secondary lymphoid organs such as the spleen or lymph nodes. In the T cell zone the micro-architecture is provided by a network of fibroblastic reticular cells (FRC) and their filaments which are assumed to work as a “road system” on which T cells can migrate. However, the effect of the FRC network on cell interaction cannot be quantified experimentally to date because of limitations in immunological methodology. We use computational models to study the influence of different kinds of FRC networks on the probability that two cells meet. We can show that the structure of the FRC network has only a small influence on this probability. However, disruption of the FRC network as observed in persistent infections maximally impairs the contact probability between cells in FRC densities corresponding to those observed in the spleen of naïve mice. Our analysis suggests that the FRC-network as a guiding structure has only a limited effect on the probability of a single cell to find its appropriate counterpart. Further analysis is suggested to reveal the importance of the FRC-network. JF - PLOS Computational Biology JA - PLOS Computational Biology VL - 8 IS - 3 UR - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002436 SP - e1002436 EP - PB - Public Library of Science M3 - doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002436 ER -