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Single-Cell Biophysics: Measurement, Modulation, and Modeling
Poster Abstracts
132
68-POS
Board 34
Migration of Densely Packed T Cells in Microchannel
HyoungJun Park
1
, HyeMi Kim
3
, Junsang Doh
1,2
.
1
POSTECH, Pohang, Kyung-buk, South Korea,
2
POSTECH, Pohang, Kyung-buk, South
Korea,
3
POSTECH, Pohang, Kyung-buk, South Korea.
T cell antigen recognition is a key initial step for the antigen-specific immune responses. T cell
antigen recognition occurs in secondary lymphoid organs such as spleens and lymph nodes. In
the lymph node, there are T cell regions where densely packed T cells continuously migrate to
survey antigens presented by dendritic cells. The movement of T cells in the T cell region is
important for efficient antigen recognition, but the migration of T cells in such densely packed
microenvironments has not been studied so far. To study the migration of densely packed T cells,
we fabricated a microchannel system filled with high density T cells. Migration of T cells within
the microchannels was quantitatively analyzed by particle imaging velocimetry (PIV) methods,
and further processed to extract various motility parameters, including mean velocity, vorticity,
and order parameter. Roles of cytoskeletons and membrane tension were assessed by treating
with pharmacological inhibitors and regulating tonicity, respectively. In addition, computer
simulation was performed to further understand mechanisms of T cell motility in densely packed
microenvironments.