A landmark study published in Immunity revealed that leukocyte trafficking is tightly regulated by the circadian clock. The authors showed that endothelial adhesion molecules, chemokines, and leukocyte migratory receptors oscillate throughout the day, creating time-dependent “homing signatures” that direct specific leukocyte subsets to tissues at distinct times.

As part of this work, MesenFlow contributed advanced flow-based transmigration assays on B cells, helping demonstrate how leukocyte recruitment dynamically changes according to circadian regulation under physiologically relevant vascular flow conditions.

These trafficking patterns are particularly relevant in cancer, where tumor progression continuously reshapes the vascular and inflammatory landscape of the tumor microenvironment, influencing immune cell recruitment and anti-tumor responses over time.

At MesenFlow, we build on these insights by integrating circadian biology into advanced human vascular flow models to better understand how temporal vascular cues regulate leukocyte-endothelium interactions and pro-inflammatory anti-tumoral immune responses.

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Reference: He W, Holtkamp S, Hergenhan S et al. Circadian Expression of Migratory Factors Establishes Lineage-Specific Signatures that Guide the Homing of Leukocyte Subsets to Tissues
Immunity, 2018; 49, 1175-1190.e7

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