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The concept of an immunological synapse goes back to the early 1980s with the discovery of the relationship between T-cell antigen receptor mediated Ca(2+) signaling, adhesion, and directed secretion. However, this concept did not gain traction until images were published starting in 1998 that revealed a specific molecular pattern in the interface between T cells and model antigen-presenting cells or supported planar bilayers. The dominant pattern, a ring of adhesion molecules surrounding a central cluster of antigen receptors, was observed in both model systems. Analysis of the origins of this pattern over the past 10 years has presented a solution for a difficult problem in lymphocyte biology--how a highly motile cell can suddenly stop when it encounters a signal delivered by just a few antigenic ligands on the surface of another cell without disabling the sensory machinery of the motile cell. The T lymphocyte actively assembles the immunological synapse pattern following a modular design with roots in actin-myosin-based motility.

Original publication

DOI

10.1101/cshperspect.a002873

Type

Journal article

Journal

Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol

Publication Date

07/2009

Volume

1

Keywords

Actins, Animals, Calcium, Cell Adhesion, Cell Movement, Humans, Immune System, Immunological Synapses, Ligands, Models, Biological, Myosins, Signal Transduction, T-Lymphocytes