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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 40: Cell Mechanics II / Cytoskeleton II

BP 40.3: Vortrag

Freitag, 13. März 2026, 10:30–10:45, BAR/0205

Role of mechanics in early immune recognition — •Kheya Sengupta — CINaM, CNRS, Luminy, France.

Our immune system depends on cell scale forces, which are implicated in various phenomena ranging from migration to recognition of pathology or for potentiating diseased cells for killing. Here the focus will be on the first steps of immune recognition which hinges on formation of bonds between specialised receptors and their specific ligands called antigens, where mechanics and forces are thought to be essential to discriminate our own antigens from those indicative of pathology. Intriguingly, unlike for tissue forming cells, the response of T cells is biphasic with the stiffness of their environment when the interaction is mediated through the T-cell receptors (TCRs). However, when the adhesive ligands of integrins are additionally involved, the cellular response becomes monotonic. Based on a mesoscale model, this ligand-specific response can be attributed to molecular properties of a putative link between the ligand/receptor pair and the cytoskeleton. While the molecules linking integrins and actin are known, the equivalent molecules for TCR are yet to be identified. Our model predicts kinetic and mechanical parameters for this putative link, whose existence we prove by mechanical extraction of membrane tubes. We also measure cell scale forces and show that their spatio-temporal patterns depend on chemistry, mechanics and T cell sub-type. Overall, our findings reinforce the proposition that force application provides a general mechanism for immune cells to discriminate mechanosensitive bonds.

Keywords: Adhesion; Spreading; Traction force microscopy; T Lymphocyte