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Updated: Jun 3, 2026

Visualizing the Actin and Microtubule Cytoskeletons at the B-cell Immune Synapse Using Stimulated Emission Depletion (STED) Microscopy
Published on: April 9, 2018
Intraflagellar transport: a new player at the immune synapse
Francesca Finetti1, Silvia Rossi Paccani, Joel Rosenbaum
1Department of Evolutionary Biology, University of Siena, Via Aldo Moro 2, 53100 Siena, Italy.
Abstract:
The assembly and maintenance of primary cilia, which orchestrate signaling pathways centrally implicated in cell proliferation, differentiation and migration, are ensured by multimeric protein particles in a process known as intraflagellar transport (IFT). It has recently been demonstrated that a number of IFT components are expressed in hematopoietic cells, which have no cilia. Here, we summarize data for an unexpected role of IFT proteins in immune synapse assembly and intracellular membrane trafficking in T lymphocytes, and discuss the hypothesis that the immune synapse could represent the functional homolog of the primary cilium in these cells.
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