Throwing light on DARC

Chemokines play a key role in directing and driving leucocyte trafficking. The efficient regulation of leucocyte recruitment by chemokines requires their appropriate localization in functional micro-anatomical domains, as well as setting limits to their effects in space and time. Both processes are influenced by silent chemokine receptors (interceptors), including DARC (Duffy antigen receptor for chemokines). Increasing experimental evidence suggests that DARC is involved in accumulation of extravascular chemokines in endothelial cells, chemokine transcytosis and presentation on their luminal surface, leading to leucocyte adhesion and emigration. Additionally, DARC is expressed on erythrocytes and can act as a sink for chemokines in blood. This limits the dissemination of chemokines through blood into distant organs and tissues as well as reducing their effects on the circulating leucocytes.