Abstract
Thymocytes stimulatedin vitro in mixed culture were adsorbed by centrifugation on to the surface of target cells for an electron-microscopic study of the cytology of immune T lymphocytes and of the early stages of cytolysis. A well-developed Golgi apparatus and clusters of tubular structures 50–60 nm in diameter, communicating with the cisternae of the granular endoplasmic reticulum, with “emptied” vesicles, and with the plasma membrane of the lymphocyte, were found in the cytoplasm of the lymphocytes. Over a wide area the plasma membrane formed numerous contacts with the membrane of the target cells, so that closed slit-like spaces were formed. With these data and also modern views regarding interconversion of membranes and intracellular transport in mind, a hypothetical scheme for the mechanism of cytolysis of the target cell by the immune T lymphocyte is suggested.
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Bykovskaya, S.N., Bykovskii, A.F., Sergeev, A.V. et al. Electron-microscopic study of interaction between cytolytic T lymphocytes and target cells. Bull Exp Biol Med 84, 1444–1448 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00801119
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00801119