Stochastic model of T Cell repolarization during target elimination (I)

Abstract: Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (T) and natural killer (NK) cells are the main cytotoxic killer cells of the human body to eliminate pathogen-infected or tumorigenic cells (i.e. target cells). Once a NK or T cell has identified a target cell, they form a tight contact zone, the immunological synapse (IS). One then observes repolarization of the cell involving the rotation of the microtubule (MT) cytoskeleton and a movement of the microtubule organizing center (MTOC) to a position that is just underneath the plasma membrane at the IS. Concomitantly a massive relocation of organelles attached to MTs is observed, including the Golgi apparatus, lytic granules and mitochondria. Since the mechanism of this relocation is still elusive we devise a theoretical model for the molecular motor driven motion of the MT cytoskeleton confined between membrane and nucleus. We analyze scenarios currently discussed in the literature, the cortical sliding and the capture-shrinkage mechanisms, and compare quantitative predictions about the spatio-temporal evolution of MTOC position and MT cytoskeleton morphology with experiments. The model predicts the experimentally observed biphasic nature of the process due to an interplay between MT cytoskeleton geometry and motor forces and confirms the dominance of the capture-shrinkage over the cortical sliding mechanism when MTOC and IS are initially diametrically opposed. We also find that the two mechanisms act synergistically, reducing the resources necessary for repositioning. The localization of dyneins in the pSMAC facilitates their interaction with the MTs. Our model also opens a way to infer details of the dynein distribution from the experimentally observed features of the MT cytoskeleton dynamics. In a subsequent publication, we will address the issue of general initial configurations and situations in which the T cell established two immunological synapses.