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Immune synapses in T-cell activation

Saso Cemerski1, Andrey Shaw

  • 1Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine, Box 8118, 660 South Euclid Avenue, Saint Louis, MO 63110, USA.

Current Opinion in Immunology
|April 11, 2006
PubMed

The contact site between T cells and antigen-presenting cells or T cells and their targets--the immunological synapse--is a highly specialized structure potentially involved in T-cell activation and function. Although many insights have been obtained since the initial description of the immune synapse, recent advances have provided us with a better understanding of mechanisms involved in synapse formation and in the diversity of synapse morphologies. New potential roles for the synapse such as in polarized cytokine secretion or in adaptive control of T-cell activation have been proposed.

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