2004/01/28 by Thomas R. Weikl, Reinhard Lipowsky · 127 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Chemistry · Immunology and Microbiology · Medicine · Physics and Astronomy · #Adhesion #Biochemistry #Biology #Biophysics #Cell #Chemistry #Cytoskeleton #Genetics #Immune Cell Function and Interaction #Immunology #Monoclonal and Polyclonal Antibodies Research #Pattern formation #T cell #T-cell and B-cell Immunology #T-cell receptor #cond-mat.stat-mech #q-bio.CB #q-bio.SC
paper · pdf · doi:10.1529/biophysj.104.045609
published in Biophysical Journal 87(6), 3665-3678 (Elsevier BV) · 12 pages, 8 figures
arxiv created 2004/01/28 · openalex publication_date 2004/09/17 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
T cells form intriguing patterns during adhesion to antigen-presenting cells. The patterns at the cell-cell contact zone are composed of two types of domains, which either contain short TCR/MHCp receptor-ligand complexes or the longer LFA-1/ICAM-1 complexes. The final pattern consists of a central TCR/MHCp domain surrounded by a ring-shaped LFA-1/ICAM-1 domain, while the characteristic pattern formed at intermediate times is inverted with TCR/MHCp complexes at the periphery of the contact zone and LFA-1/ICAM-1 complexes in the center. In this article, we present a statistical-mechanical model of cell adhesion and propose a novel mechanism for the T cell pattern formation. Our mechanism for the formation of the intermediate inverted pattern is based (i) on the initial nucleation of numerous TCR/MHCp microdomains, and (ii) on the diffusion of free receptors and ligands into the contact zone. Due to this inward diffusion, TCR/MHCp microdomains at the rim of the contact zone grow faster and form an intermediate peripheral ring for sufficiently large TCR/MHCp concentrations. In agreement with experiments, we find that the formation of the final pattern with a central TCR/MHCp domain requires active cytoskeletal transport processes. Without active transport, the intermediate inverted pattern seems to be metastable in our model, which might explain patterns observed during natural killer (NK) cell adhesion. At smaller TCR/MHCp complex concentrations, we observe a different regime of pattern formation with intermediate multifocal TCR/MHCp patterns which resemble experimental patterns found during thymozyte adhesion.