A video about the work of killers

With the help of the latest developments in the field of visualization of living cells, researchers from the UK and the USA, working under the guidance of Professor Gillian Griffiths from the University of Cambridge, filmed a video of the process of destruction of tumor cells by specialized immune cells known as T-killers, or cytotoxic T-lymphocytes.

Billions of T-lymphocytes circulate in human blood, the main function of which is to search for and destroy infected and malignant cells that threaten our health. These cells, which look like orange or green amorphous droplets in the video, move quickly, examining the space around them along the way. When a cytotoxic T-lymphocyte finds an infected or malignant cell (blue), the membrane of its surface quickly forms many protrusions that allow the T-killer to be convinced of the danger of an uninvited guest.

After that, T-killers bind to cancer cells and release toxic proteins (red in color) inside microtubules – membrane structures that subsequently penetrate into target cells and inject their deadly contents into them. As a result, cancer cells are rapidly destroyed and die, while T-lymphocytes continue their movement in search of new victims.

The authors shot their impressive video using the method of three-dimensional slow-motion multi-color shooting with high resolution, which uses spinning disc confocal microscopy and microscopy of a light sheet with discrete illumination. These techniques involve taking "slices" of the volume of the entire sample and their subsequent connection to obtain a three-dimensional image.

Article by Ritter et al. Actin depletion initiates events leading to granule secrecy at the immunological synapse published in the journal Immunity.

Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of the University of Cambridge:
Body’s ‘serial killers’ captured on film destroying cancer cells.

22.05.2015