Lytic versus stimulatory synapse in cytotoxic T lymphocyte/target cell interaction: manifestation of a dual activation threshold.

ABSTRACT: Activation of biological functions in T lymphocytes is determined by the molecular dynamics occurring at the T cell/opposing cell interface. In the present study, a central question of cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) biology was studied at the single-cell level: can two distinct activation thresholds for cytotoxicity and cytokine production be explained by intercellular molecular dynamics between CTLs and targets? In this study, we combine morphological approaches with numerical analysis, which allows us to associate specific patterns of calcium mobilization with different biological responses. We show that CTLs selectively activated to cytotoxicity lack a mature immunological synapse while exhibiting a low threshold polarized secretion of lytic granules and spike-like patterns of calcium mob

SUBMITTER: Faroudi M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC283560 | biostudies-literature | 2003 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature