Calcium Influx Characteristics During T Lymphocyte Activation Measured with Flow Cytometry

T lymphocytes are of paramount importance in many intercellular reactions, such as the regulation of the inflammatory response and immune reactivity. Until the recent past, single-cell techniques were used for the investigation of calcium influx during T lymphocyte activation. Therefore, over the recent years we have created a novel approach that allows simultaneous recording of calcium influx in several lymphocyte subsets using flow cytometry. Our research group developed a robust algorithm (FacsKin) for the evaluation of the acquired data that fits functions to median values of the fluorescent marker of interest and calculates relevant parameters describing each function. Over the recent years, we have investigated calcium influx characteristics applying this method in a number of autoimmune disorders and under different physiological conditions (such as the neonatal period and pregnancy). In this review, we aim to give a brief summary of our findings and of the common characteristics of calcium influx in the investigated disorders, namely: multiple sclerosis (MS), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), ankylosing spondylitis (AS), and preeclampsia (PE). Based on our results, a number of dominant features were identified that were present in most of the investigated autoimmune diseases.