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Review
. 2018 Feb 6;19(2):485.
doi: 10.3390/ijms19020485.

Integrins in T Cell Physiology

Alessandra Bertoni  1 , Oscar Alabiso  2 , Alessandra Silvia Galetto  3 , Gianluca Baldanzi  4
Affiliations
Review

Integrins in T Cell Physiology

Alessandra Bertoni et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

From the thymus to the peripheral lymph nodes, integrin-mediated interactions with neighbor cells and the extracellular matrix tune T cell behavior by organizing cytoskeletal remodeling and modulating receptor signaling. LFA-1 (αLβ2 integrin) and VLA-4 (α4β1 integrin) play a key role throughout the T cell lifecycle from thymocyte differentiation to lymphocyte extravasation and finally play a fundamental role in organizing immune synapse, providing an essential costimulatory signal for the T cell receptor. Apart from tuning T cell signaling, integrins also contribute to homing to specific target organs as exemplified by the importance of α4β7 in maintaining the gut immune system. However, apart from those well-characterized examples, the physiological significance of the other integrin dimers expressed by T cells is far less understood. Thus, integrin-mediated cell-to-cell and cell-to-matrix interactions during the T cell lifespan still represent an open field of research.

Keywords: adhesion; costimulation; cytoskeleton; signal 2; tension.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Integrin α chain expression in selected lymphocyte populations. Data were retrieved by the immunological genome project (Immgem ULI RNAseq database, Geo accession: GSE109125) using the RNA-seq Skyline tool and plotted in global scaling (log10) [5]. Treg: regulatory T cells; NKT: natural killer T cells; γδT: γδ T cells.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Integrin β chain expression in selected lymphocyte populations. Data were retrieved by the immunological genome project (Immgem ULI RNAseq database, Geo accession: GSE109125) using the RNA-seq Skyline tool and plotted in global scaling (log10) [5].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Immune synapse organization.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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