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Compartment Dependence of T‐Lymphocyte Motility
Author(s) -
SUNDQVIST K.G.,
OTTESKOG P.,
MELLSTEDT H.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.934
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1365-3083
pISSN - 0300-9475
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3083.1986.tb02000.x
Subject(s) - motility , spleen , matrix (chemical analysis) , biology , immunology , microbiology and biotechnology , chemistry , chromatography
Fresh human T lymphocytes from the blood of healthy individuals exhibited few motile forms, i.e. nonspherical shape and lamellar surface activity, when allowed to settle on a plastic surface. This poor motility of ‘normal’ blood T lymphocytes is most likely physiological, since under the same conditions more than 75% of the blood lymphocytes from T‐cell chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (TCLL) cases showed motile forms. In contrast to blood T cells, a large proportion of fresh human splenic T lymphocytes from separate individuals generally showed motile behaviour within 1 h when plated on a substrate. The rate of migration of spleen T cells into a collagen matrix was higher than that of blood T cells. The poor motile behaviour therefore appeared to be a limiting factor for translocation and migration of blood T cells within a collagen matrix. Culture on a collagen matrix at ‘low’ cell density in the presence or absence of serum for 2 days augmented the percentage of motile blood T cells lo the same level as for fresh spleen T cells, whereas culture on plastic caused a relatively moderate increase in motility. This collagen‐mediated potentiation probably does not reflect polyclonal T‐cell activation, since it occurred in serum‐free medium and appeared independent of cell interactions, and since collagen did not induce DNA synthesis. These results demonstrate two major factors regulating the ‘spontaneous’ motility of T lymphocytes, namely the location of the cell within the body and the nature of the substratum.