The Adapter Proteins LAT and SLP-76 Are Required for T-cell Activation

  1. T.S. FINCO,
  2. D. YABLONSKI,
  3. J. LIN, and
  4. A. WEISS
  1. *Department of Biology, Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia 30030; †Departments of Medicine and Microbiology and Immunology, and The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94143

This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.

Excerpt

T lymphocytes (T cells) are a primary cellular constituent of the immune system that possess the capacity todirectly destroy cells infected with a pathogen and thatalso have a central role in stimulating and coordinatelyother components of the immune response. These T-cellfunctions are a consequence of T-cell receptor (TCR) engagement by pathogen-derived antigen expressed on thesurface of antigen-presenting cells. The interaction ofantigen with the TCR induces T-cell proliferation and differentiation and results in the conversion of T cells froman immunologically inert state to an active state. Thesefundamental changes in T-cell physiology, which can becollectively referred to as T-cell activation, are broughtabout through the action of multiple intracellular signaltransduction pathways that emanate from the antigen-engaged TCR. Our understanding of T cells, and thus theinitiation of an effective adaptive immune response, istherefore dependent on identifying and characterizingthese inducible signaling pathways...

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