Chemotactic migration of T cells towards dendritic cells promotes the detection of rare antigens.
PLoS Comput Biol
; 8(11): e1002763, 2012.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-23166480
ABSTRACT
In many immunological processes chemoattraction is thought to play a role in guiding cells to their sites of action. However, based on in vivo two-photon microscopy experiments in the absence of cognate antigen, T cell migration in lymph nodes (LNs) has been roughly described as a random walk. Although it has been shown that dendritic cells (DCs) carrying cognate antigen in some circumstances attract T cells chemotactically, it is currently still unclear whether chemoattraction of T cells towards DCs helps or hampers scanning. Chemoattraction towards DCs could on the one hand help T cells to rapidly find DCs. On the other hand, it could be deleterious if DCs become shielded by a multitude of attracted yet non-specific T cells. Results from a recent simulation study suggested that the deleterious effect dominates. We re-addressed the question whether T cell chemoattraction towards DCs is expected to promote or hamper the detection of rare antigens using the Cellular Potts Model, a formalism that allows for dynamic, flexible cellular shapes and cell migration. Our simulations show that chemoattraction of T cells enhances the DC scanning efficiency, leading to an increased probability that rare antigen-specific T cells find DCs carrying cognate antigen. Desensitization of T cells after contact with a DC further improves the scanning efficiency, yielding an almost threefold enhancement compared to random migration. Moreover, the chemotaxis-driven migration still roughly appears as a random walk, hence fine-tuned analysis of cell tracks will be required to detect chemotaxis within microscopy data.
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Células Dendríticas
/
Linfócitos T
/
Movimento Celular
/
Quimiotaxia
/
Modelos Imunológicos
/
Antígenos
Tipo de estudo:
Diagnostic_studies
Idioma:
En
Revista:
PLoS Comput Biol
Assunto da revista:
BIOLOGIA
/
INFORMATICA MEDICA
Ano de publicação:
2012
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Holanda