Remodelling of cortical actin where lytic granules dock at natural killer cell immune synapses revealed by super-resolution microscopy
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Natural Killer (NK) cells are innate immune cells that secrete lytic granules to directly kill virus-infected or transformed cells across an immune synapse. However, a major gap in understanding this process is in establishing how lytic granules pass through the mesh of cortical actin known to underlie the NK cell membrane. Research has been hampered by the resolution of conventional light microscopy, which is too low to resolve cortical actin during lytic granule secretion. Here we use two high-resolution imaging techniques to probe the synaptic organisation of NK cell receptors and filamentous (F)-actin. A combination of optical tweezers and live cell confocal microscopy reveals that microclusters of NKG2D assemble into a ring-shaped structure at the centre of intercellular synapses, where Vav1 and Grb2 also accumulate. Within this ring-shaped organisation of NK cell proteins, lytic granules accumulate for secretion. Using 3D-structured illumination microscopy (3D-SIM) to gain super-resolution of ∼100 nm, cortical actin was detected in a central region of the NK cell synapse irrespective of whether activating or inhibitory signals dominate. Strikingly, the periodicity of the cortical actin mesh increased in specific domains at the synapse when the NK cell was activated. Two-colour super-resolution imaging revealed that lytic granules docked precisely in these domains which were also proximal to where the microtubule-organising centre (MTOC) polarised. Together, these data demonstrate that remodelling of the cortical actin mesh occurs at the central region of the cytolytic NK cell immune synapse. This is likely to occur for other types of cell secretion and also emphasises the importance of emerging super-resolution imaging technology for revealing new biology.
Date Issued
2011-09-01
Date Acceptance
2011-08-03
Citation
PLoS Biology, 2011, 9 (9), pp.1-18
ISSN
1544-9173
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Start Page
1
End Page
18
Journal / Book Title
PLoS Biology
Volume
9
Issue
9
Copyright Statement
© 2011 Brown et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
License URL
Sponsor
Medical Research Council (MRC)
Medical Research Council (MRC)
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000295372800009&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Grant Number
G0500563
G1001044
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Biology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine - Other Topics
STRUCTURED-ILLUMINATION MICROSCOPY
HUMAN NK CELLS
IMMUNOLOGICAL SYNAPSE
T-CELLS
TARGET-CELLS
RECEPTOR MICROCLUSTERS
CYTOLYTIC INTERACTIONS
INHIBITORY RECEPTORS
SECRETORY DOMAIN
MYOSIN-IIA
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN e1001152
Date Publish Online
2011-09-13