UCSF scientists have discovered the unexpected way in which a key cell of the immune system prepares for battle. The finding, they said, offers insight into the processes that take place within these cells and could lead to strategies for treating conditions from spinal cord injury to cancer.
The research focused on the neutrophil, the most common type of white blood cell. Like other cells in the immune system, its job is to seek out and destroy bacteria, viruses or other foreign entities that enter the bloodstream or organs. Scientists have known that, to do this, each cell changes its otherwise amorphous shape to form a single front, or leading edge, that approaches the invader and leads the cell into attack.
The leading edge is thought to send out some type of signal to the rest of the cell to prevent the formation of secondary fronts. Until now, scientists thought the signal was transmitted by the movement of molecules from one part of the cell to another.
Now, however, a team of researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, has shown that the neutrophil triggers this long-range inhibition by transmitting mechanical force.
The process relies on the assembly of a protein known as actin, which accumulates in the part of the cell that pushes out in the direction of its bacterial target.
In their paper, published today in the journal Cell (January 20, 2011), the team showed that the cell's protrusion stretches its membrane, taking it from lax to tight, like the rope in a game of tug-of-war. The tension is transmitted along the cell membrane, moving from front to back. It is this tension that restricts activity to the leading edge.
"This critical ability of cells to restrict activity to specific regions of their surface is essential for many processes, ranging from the regulation of cell division to the formation of multicellular organisms and the wiring of the nervous system," s
'/>"/>
| Contact: Kristen Bole kristen.bole@ucsf.edu 415-502-6397 University of California - San Francisco Source:Eurekalert |
Related biology news :
1. Collaborative effort uncovers DNA duplications that may be responsible for genomic-based diseases
2. Study uncovers a molecular maturation clock that modulates branching architecture in tomato plants
3. Paper uncovers power of Foldit gamers strategies
4. New study uncovers how brain cells degrade dangerous protein aggregates
5. Thats gross!: Study uncovers physiological nature of disgust in politics
6. Wildlife Conservation Society uncovers record number of jaguars in Bolivia
7. Wildlife Conservation Society study uncovers a predictable sequence toward coral reef collapse
8. George Mason research team uncovers new factor in HIV infection
9. UT scientist uncovers trigger to fatal neurodegenerative disease
10. Research uncovers key to understanding cause of lupus
11. Scripps Research scientist uncovers switch controlling protein production
 |
| Copyright © 2003-2012 Bio-Medicine. All rights reserved. ABOUT | CONTACT US | DISCLAIMER | PRIVACY POLICY | TERMS AND CONDITIONS |  |