Regensburg 2016 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 7: Coupled Problems in Biological Systems (Focus Session)

BP 7.5: Vortrag

Montag, 7. März 2016, 12:30–12:45, H45

Migration patterns of dendritic cells in response to chemokines — •Veronika Bierbaum, Jan Schwarz, Michael Sixt, and Tobias Bollenbach — IST Austria, am Campus 1, 3400 Klosterneuburg

Dendritic cells are decisive components of the adaptive immune system. When they navigate through tissues, the two chemokines CCL19 and CCL21 guide them directionally. In an experimental-theoretical study, we develop a physical description of dendritic cell migration in response to a given chemokine field. We characterize cell migration as a function of this field through in vitro assays of precisely controlled immobilized chemokine patterns. We monitor cells in varying exponential or linear profiles using time-lapse microscopy. The trajectories of these cells can be characterized in terms of stochastic differential equations, which allow for separation of the stochastic and deterministic contributions to cell directionality and velocity. For CCL21, we find that the cells' directionality is higher in exponential as compared to linear profiles. This observation supports a scenario where the directionality is governed by the signal-to-noise ratio resulting from chemokine binding to the receptor. Cells with a defect in the chemokine signal transduction pathway show reduced ability of CCL21 recognition, consistent with biochemical studies. Our findings indicate that cell directionality, for a range of concentrations, is controlled by the quality of signal transduction.