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Updated: Jun 22, 2026

Real-time Live Imaging of T-cell Signaling Complex Formation
Published on: June 23, 2013
Visualizing intermolecular interactions in T cells
Nicholas R J Gascoigne1, Jeanette Ampudia, Jean-Pierre Clamme
1Department of Immunology and Microbial Science, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. Gascoigne@scripps.edu
Abstract:
The use of appropriate fluorescent proteins has allowed the use of FRET microscopy for investigation of intermolecular interactions in living cells. This method has the advantage of both being dynamic and of working at the subcellular level, so that the time and place where proteins interact can be visualized. We have used FRET microscopy to analyze the interactions between the T cell antigen receptor and the coreceptors CD4 and CD8. This chapter reviews data on how these coreceptors are recruited to the immunological synapse, and how they interact when the T cell is stimulated by different ligands.

