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Updated: Mar 6, 2026

Visualizing the Actin and Microtubule Cytoskeletons at the B-cell Immune Synapse Using Stimulated Emission Depletion STED Microscopy
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Visualizing the Actin and Microtubule Cytoskeletons at the B-cell Immune Synapse Using Stimulated Emission Depletion STED Microscopy

Published on: April 9, 2018

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Analyzing Actin Dynamics at the Immunological Synapse

Katarzyna I Jankowska1,2, Janis K Burkhardt3,4

  • 1Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute, 3615 Civic Center Blvd, ARC 816D, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.

Methods in Molecular Biology (Clifton, N.J.)
|March 4, 2017
PubMed

T cell signaling is inextricably linked to actin cytoskeletal dynamics at the immunological synapse (IS). This process can be imaged in living T cells expressing GFP actin or fluorescent F-actin binding proteins. Because of its planar nature, the IS provides a unique opportunity to image events as they happen, monitoring changes in actin retrograde flow in T cells interacting with different stimulatory surfaces or after pharmacological treatments. Here, we described the imaging methods and analytical procedures used to measure actin velocity across the IS in T cells spreading on planar stimulatory surfaces.

Keywords:
ActinCytoskeletonImmunological synapseIntegrinKymographLive cell imagingMobile ligandsPlanar lipid bilayerSpinning diskT-cells

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