An initial and rapid step of lytic granule secretion precedes microtubule organizing center polarization at the cytotoxic T lymphocyte/target cell synapse
- 27 March 2013
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Vol. 110 (15), 6073-6078
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1218640110
Abstract
It is presently assumed that lethal hit delivery by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) is mechanistically linked to centrosome polarization toward target cells, leading to dedicated release of lytic granules within a confined secretory domain. Here we provide three lines of evidence showing that this mechanism might not apply as a general paradigm for lethal hit delivery. First, in CTLs stimulated with immobilized peptide–MHC complexes, lytic granules and microtubule organizing center localization into synaptic areas are spatio-temporally dissociated, as detected by total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy. Second, in many CTL/target cell conjugates, lytic granule secretion precedes microtubule polarization and can be detected during the first minute after cell–cell contact. Third, inhibition of microtubule organizing center and centrosome polarization impairs neither lytic granule release at the CTL synapse nor killing efficiency. Our results broaden current views of CTL biology by revealing an extremely rapid step of lytic granule secretion and by showing that microtubule organizing center polarization is dispensable for efficient lethal hit delivery.Keywords
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