ArticlePLoS biology2009
Natural killer cell signal integration balances synapse symmetry and migration.
Article in PLoS biology, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 55 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
55 citing papers in PubMed, 101 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- CXCR4 coordinates adhesion, migration, and development of human NK cells.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Mechanoregulation of lymphocyte cytotoxicity.Nature reviews. Immunology · 2025Review
- Cancer cells suppress NK cell activity by actin-driven polarization of inhibitory ligands to the immunological synapse.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- CD56/NCAM mediates cell migration of human NK cells by promoting integrin-mediated adhesion turnover.Molecular biology of the cell · 2024Article
- Natural Killer Cell Mechanosensing in Solid Tumors.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Fatty acid oxidation fuels natural killer cell responses against infection and cancer.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- In-depth analysis of the interplay between oncogenic mutations and NK cell-mediated cancer surveillance in solid tumors.Oncoimmunology · 2024Review
- CD56/NCAM mediates cell migration of human NK cells by promoting integrin-mediated adhesion turnover.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- Article
- NgR1 is an NK cell inhibitory receptor that destabilizes the immunological synapse.Nature immunology · 2023Article
- Actin Retrograde Flow Regulated by the Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome Protein Drives the Natural Killer Cell Response.Cancers · 2022Article
- Spatially resolved in silico modeling of NKG2D signaling kinetics suggests a key role of NKG2D and Vav1 Co-clustering in generating natural killer cell activation.PLoS computational biology · 2022Article
- Molecular-scale spatio-chemical control of the activating-inhibitory signal integration in NK cells.Science advances · 2021Article
- Extracellular Vesicles From the Human Natural Killer Cell Line NK3.3 Have Broad and Potent Anti-Tumor Activity.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2021Article
- The Role of the Cytoskeleton in Regulating the Natural Killer Cell Immune Response in Health and Disease: From Signaling Dynamics to Function.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2021Review
- Considerations of Antibody Geometric Constraints on NK Cell Antibody Dependent Cellular Cytotoxicity.Frontiers in immunology · 2020Review
- Human signal transducer and activator of transcription 5b (STAT5b) mutation causes dysregulated human natural killer cell maturation and impaired lytic function.The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology · 2020Article
- Advanced Materials and Devices for the Regulation and Study of NK Cells.International journal of molecular sciences · 2019Review
- Expression of ligands for activating natural killer cell receptors on cell lines commonly used to assess natural killer cell function.BMC immunology · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
15 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Natural killer (NK) cells discern the health of other cells by recognising the balance of activating and inhibitory ligands expressed by each target cell. However, how the integration of activating and inhibitory signals relates to formation of the NK cell immune synapse remains a central question in our understanding of NK cell recognition. Here we report that ligation of LFA-1 on NK cells induced asymmetrical cell spreading and migration. In contrast, ligation of the activating receptor NKG2D induced symmetrical spreading of ruffled lamellipodia encompassing a dynamic ring of f-actin, concurrent with polarization towards a target cell and a "stop" signal. Ligation of both LFA-1 and NKG2D together resulted in symmetrical spreading but co-ligation of inhibitory receptors reverted NK cells to an asymmetrical migratory configuration leading to inhibitory synapses being smaller and more rapidly disassembled. Using micropatterned activating and inhibitory ligands, signals were found to be continuously and locally integrated during spreading. Together, these data demonstrate that NK cells spread to form large, stable, symmetrical synapses if activating signals dominate, whereas asymmetrical migratory "kinapses" are favoured if inhibitory signals dominate. This clarifies how the integration of activating and inhibitory receptor signals is translated to an appropriate NK cell response.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.