白细胞突触:结构、功能和意义

神经突触是神经网络的关键性结构,免疫网络主要是无形网络。近年来的研究进展表明,免疫细胞在有些功能状态下形成白细胞突触,称为免疫学突触(immunological synapse,IS),构成局部暂时性结构网络,实际上是动态结构,有人将其分为synapse和kinapse。研究表明,不同白细胞的IS不尽相同,炎症细胞和白血病细胞的IS有其特点。在有些病毒感染的白细胞中也观察到类似结构,称为病毒学突触(virological synapse,VS),是病毒在细胞间传播的一种机制,它不仅提高了传染效率,还逃逸了抗体的中和作用,导致持续性感染。最近法国学者报道了呈花瓣样的多聚突触(polysynapses),即花瓣样的多个细胞膜纳米管道,病毒能从一个感染细胞同时传播给多个邻近细胞。本文作者显示了早期工作中观察到的感染EB病毒的人白血病细胞系J6-2中的类似结构。作者结合工作中的体会评述白细胞突触的结构和功能,探讨其生物学意义。

Leukocyte Synapse: Structure, Function and Significance

Neuronal synapse is the critical structure of neuronal network. Immune system is mainly consisted of invisible network. Recently, evidence showed that leukocyte synapses between immune cells named as immunological synapses （IS）, were formed under some functional conditions to form temporal local network. In fact, they are dynamic structures, which can be classified into synapse and kinapse. Different leukocytes have different synapses. Inflammatory and leukemic cells showed special patterns of IS. Similar structure is also observed in some viral infected lymphocytes, which is called virological synapse （VS）. This is one of the mechanisms for viral transmission, not only enhancing the transmission efficiency but also mediating the escape from antibody neutralization, leading persistent infection. Recently the flower-like polysynapses was reported by Franch scientists. This is a multi-tunneling nanotube flower-like structure on cell surface. We had observed this kind of structure in EB virus infected human leukemic cell line J6-2. In this paper, the structure and function of leukocyte synapses are reviewed combined with anthors＇own work. Their significance is discussed.