Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of the Immune Synapse in the Human System Using Imaging Flow Cytometry

The immune synapse is the area of communication between T cells and antigen-presenting cells (APCs). T cells polarize surface receptors and proteins towards the immune synapse to assure a stable binding and signal exchange. Classical confocal, TIRF, or super-resolution microscopy have been used to study the immune synapse. Since these methods require manual image acquisition and time-consuming quantification, the imaging of rare events is challenging. Here, we describe a workflow that enables the morphological analysis of tens of thousands of cells. Immune synapses are induced between primary human T cells in pan-leukocyte preparations and Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxin B (SEB)-loaded Raji cells as APCs. Image acquisition is performed with imaging flow cytometry, also called In-Flow microscopy, which combines features of a flow cytometer and a fluorescence microscope. A complete gating strategy for identifying T cell/APC couples and analyzing the immune synapses is provided. As this workflow allows the analysis of immune synapses in unpurified pan-leukocyte preparations and hence requires only a small volume of blood (i.e., 1 mL), it can be applied to samples from patients. Importantly, several samples can be prepared, measured, and analyzed in parallel.