ArticleScience immunology2024
Single-cell topographical profiling of the immune synapse reveals a biomechanical signature of cytotoxicity.
Article in Science immunology, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Mechanical stress-mediated immune and inflammatory regulation:Frontiers in medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Decoding mechanoregulation in immunological synapses using biomimetic artificial cells.Nature methods · 2026Article
- How crosstalk at the immune synapse shapes T cell and dendritic cell biology.Nature reviews. Immunology · 2026Review
- Using tunable hydrogel microparticles to measure cellular forces.Nature protocols · 2026Review
- Mechano-immune interactions in musculoskeletal aging: Mechanisms and translational perspectives.Theranostics · 2026Review
- A hypothesis and evidence map for neuroimmune regulation of DOCK-family cytoskeletal programs in solid tumors.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Integrative Biosensing Nanoplasmonic Array for Real-Time Spatiotemporal Imaging of Protein Secretion in Cell-to-Cell Communication.Small science · 2025Article
- Mechanotransduction in Shaping Immunity: Pathways, Crosstalk, and Pathophysiological Relevance.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Review
- Advances in ligand-based surface engineering strategies for fine-tuning T cell mechanotransduction toward efficient immunotherapy.Biophysical journal · 2025Review
- Three-dimensional traction technology and its application in mechanomedicine.Mechanobiology in medicine · 2025Review
- Mechanoregulation of lymphocyte cytotoxicity.Nature reviews. Immunology · 2025Review
- Immunological synapse: structures, molecular mechanisms and therapeutic implications in disease.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2025Review
- CD2 augmentation enhances CAR-T-cell efficacy via immunological synapse remodeling and T-cell exhaustion mitigation.Cellular & molecular immunology · 2025Article
- Engineering multifunctional surface topography to regulate multiple biological responses.Biomaterials · 2025Review
- Dynamic Plasma Membrane Topography Linked With Arp2/3 Actin Network Induction During Cell Shape Change.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2025Review
- Biomechanics in the tumor microenvironment: from biological functions to potential clinical applications.Experimental hematology & oncology · 2025Review
- Should Artificial Intelligence Play a Durable Role in Biomedical Research and Practice?International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Compressive stresses in cancer: characterization and implications for tumour progression and treatment.Nature reviews. Cancer · 2024Review
- Article
- Elucidating the causal associations and mechanisms between circulating immune cells and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: new insights from Mendelian randomization and transcriptomics.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
20 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Immune cells have intensely physical lifestyles characterized by structural plasticity and force exertion. To investigate whether specific immune functions require stereotyped mechanical outputs, we used super-resolution traction force microscopy to compare the immune synapses formed by cytotoxic T cells with contacts formed by other T cell subsets and by macrophages. T cell synapses were globally compressive, which was fundamentally different from the pulling and pinching associated with macrophage phagocytosis. Spectral decomposition of force exertion patterns from each cell type linked cytotoxicity to compressive strength, local protrusiveness, and the induction of complex, asymmetric topography. These features were validated as cytotoxic drivers by genetic disruption of cytoskeletal regulators, live imaging of synaptic secretion, and in silico analysis of interfacial distortion. Synapse architecture and force exertion were sensitive to target stiffness and size, suggesting that the mechanical potentiation of killing is biophysically adaptive. We conclude that cellular cytotoxicity and, by implication, other effector responses are supported by specialized patterns of efferent force.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.