Three-dimensional segregation of supramolecular activation clusters in T cells

Colin R. F. Monks, Benjamin A. Freiberg, Hannah Kupfer, Noah Sciaky and Abraham Kupfer
Additional contact information
Colin R. F. Monks: National Jewish Medical and Research Center
Benjamin A. Freiberg: National Jewish Medical and Research Center
Hannah Kupfer: National Jewish Medical and Research Center
Noah Sciaky: National Jewish Medical and Research Center
Abraham Kupfer: National Jewish Medical and Research Center

Nature, 1998, vol. 395, issue 6697, 82-86

Abstract: Abstract Activation of T cells by antigen-presenting cells (APCs) depends on the complex integration of signals that are delivered by multiple antigen receptors. Most receptor-proximal activation events in T cells1,2 were identified using multivalent anti-receptor antibodies, eliminating the need to use the more complex APCs. As the physiological membrane-associated ligands on the APC and the activating antibodies probably trigger the same biochemical pathways, it is unknown why the antibodies, even at saturating concentrations, fail to trigger some of the physiological T-cell responses3. Here we study, at the level of the single cell, the responses of T cells to native ligands. We used a digital imaging system and analysed the three-dimensional distribution of receptors and intracellular proteins that cluster at the contacts between T cells and APCs during antigen-specific interactions3,4. Surprisingly, instead of showing uniform oligomerization, these proteins clustered into segregated three-dimensional domains within the cell contacts. The antigen-specific formation of these new, spatially segregated supramolecular activation clusters may generate appropriate physiological responses and may explain the high sensitivity of the T cells to antigen.

Date: 1998
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/25764 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:395:y:1998:i:6697:d:10.1038_25764

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/25764

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().