EnABLing the immune synapse

EnABLing the immune synapse

The immune synapse (IS) forms in response to antigen presentation and T-cell receptor engagement. Following stimulation, components critical for transmitting the activation signal downstream assemble and orchestrate the events required for proper T-cell response. One key step in this process involves reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton and formation of actin-rich signaling complexes.1 This...

Spinophilin and the immune synapse

Extensive alterations in cellular organization are known to accompany the responses of sensitized T cells to target cells presenting an antigen of interest. Now, equally if not more dramatic changes are found to take place in cells presenting an antigen. With the help of a spinophilin-GFP fusion protein, Bloom et al. (Bloom, O., J.J. Unternaehrer, A. Jiang, J.-S. Shin, L. Delamarre, P. Allen, a...

Intrigue at the immune synapse.

The human natural killer cell immune synapse.

Inhibitory killer Ig-like receptors (KIR) at the surface of natural killer (NK) cells induced clustering of HLA-C at the contacting surface of target cells. In this manner, inhibitory immune synapses were formed as human NK cells surveyed target cells. At target/NK cell synapses, HLA-C/KIR distributed into rings around central patches of intercellular adhesion molecule-1/lymphocyte function-ass...

Mitochondria move to immune synapse

A rendezvous among mitochondria and the juncture between immune cells is needed to jumpstart T cells, according to results from Ariel Quintana, Markus Hoth, and colleagues (Saarland University, Homburg, Germany). The mitochondria soak up calcium to keep nearby calcium channels open. Calcium fl owing into a T cell that has met an antigen-presenting cell turns on transcription factors that activa...