The inner side of T cell lipid rafts.
A key question in understanding the functional role of lipid rafts is whether lipid microdomains at the plasma membrane outer leaflet are coupled to lipid microdomains at the inner leaflet. By using a cyan-fluorescent protein (CFP) targeted to inner plasma membrane rafts of Jurkat T cells, we found that raft domains at the outer and inner leaflets are physically coupled and that this coupling requires cholesterol. Interestingly, TCR/CD3 cross-linking induces co-capping of the raft bilayer independently of cholesterol or signaling events, indicating that cholesterol-extracting drugs are unable to destroy TCR-lipid rafts interaction.
Department of Biomedical Sciences, Venetian Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Padua, 35129 Padua, Italy. giorgia.gri@unipd.it
Giorgia
G
Gri
Barbara
B
Molon
Santos
S
Manes
Tullio
T
Pozzan
Antonella
A
Viola
D017252:CD3 Complex / Q000276:immunology*; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000378:metabolism*; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D006801:Humans; D019169:Jurkat Cells; D021962:Membrane Microdomains / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell / Q000276:immunology*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism
D017252:CD3 Complex; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell; D002784:Cholesterol