Frontiers in Immunology (Oct 2023)

T cell Ca2+ microdomains through the lens of computational modeling

  • Diana C. Gil Montoya,
  • Roberto Ornelas-Guevara,
  • Björn-Philipp Diercks,
  • Andreas H. Guse,
  • Geneviève Dupont

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1235737
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14

Abstract

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Cellular Ca2+ signaling is highly organized in time and space. Locally restricted and short-lived regions of Ca2+ increase, called Ca2+ microdomains, constitute building blocks that are differentially arranged to create cellular Ca2+ signatures controlling physiological responses. Here, we focus on Ca2+ microdomains occurring in restricted cytosolic spaces between the plasma membrane and the endoplasmic reticulum, called endoplasmic reticulum-plasma membrane junctions. In T cells, these microdomains have been finely characterized. Enough quantitative data are thus available to develop detailed computational models of junctional Ca2+ dynamics. Simulations are able to predict the characteristics of Ca2+ increases at the level of single channels and in junctions of different spatial configurations, in response to various signaling molecules. Thanks to the synergy between experimental observations and computational modeling, a unified description of the molecular mechanisms that create Ca2+ microdomains in the first seconds of T cell stimulation is emerging.

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