The use of cytochalasins to probe the immunobiolgoy of lymphocytes

Abstract

No attempt will be made to summarize in any formal way the "pot-pourri" of experiments we have considered in this chapter. It may occur to some that immunologists as a group have been somewhat removed from the advances made in cellular biology during the last decade. Specifically, they may appear to lack an appreciation of the many ways in which durgs like the cytochalasins can affect cell function. Perhaps because of this naivety however, the immunologists have used the cytochalasins to probe systems so complex that they would never have been comtemplated by more conservative investigaors. In doing so they have revealed insight into many systems that will hopefully be of broad biolgical interest. To date the insights have been mostly of a rather superficial nature and clearly demand more thorough investigation. If they are to be done, such studies will have to be performed by non-immunologists bringing new tools and new perspectives to bear on the immunologists' problems.