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Synthetic surfaces as artificial antigen presenting cells in the study of T cell receptor triggering and

Darrell J Irvine1, Junsang Doh

  • 1Department of Materials Science & Engineering and Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. djirvine@mit.edu

Seminars in Immunology
|April 3, 2007
PubMed

T cell activation occurs when T cell receptors engage peptide-major histocompatibility complex (pMHC) molecules displayed on the surface of antigen presenting cells (APCs). Clustering of TCRs and other receptors in physical patterns at the T-APC interface forms a structure known as an immunological synapse (IS). Studies of the IS are challenging due to the cell-cell contact context of the governing interactions. Model surfaces as synthetic APCs have thus been developed, where the type, quantity, and physical arrangement of ligands displayed to T cells are precisely controlled. These model systems have provided important insights into the structure and function of the IS.

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