Photonic waveguide chip-based nanoscopy visualizes rearrangements of the cortical actin cytoskeleton in activated Jurkat T cells.

Authors

Surjendu Bikash Dutta, Wolfgang Hübner, Paul Goffing, Anders Kokkvoll Engdahl, Stefan Belle, Ralf Hellmann, Mark Schüttpelz, Francesco Dell'Olio, Thomas Huser

Published in

Science advances. Volume 12. Issue 29. Pages eaeg3960. Jul 17, 2026. Epub Jul 15, 2026.

Abstract

The actin cytoskeleton in activated T cells undergoes rapid structural changes during the formation of an immunological synapse. Superresolution fluorescence microscopy provides excellent means to visualize such antibody-triggered changes. Here, we use single-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM) enabled by transparent polymer waveguide chips to resolve the filamentous-actin (F-actin) cytoskeleton in activated Jurkat T cells in comparison to nonactivated T cells across a large field of view. Transparent polymer waveguides enable a wide array of imaging modalities. In combination, these modalities reveal the structural differences between lamellipodial and ramified actin networks within the immunological synapse of activated T cells. SMLM images recorded by using narrow-width waveguide total internal reflection illumination resolve the double-stranded helical structure of actin filaments in activated Jurkat T cells. The average crossover length of the filaments is measured to be ~40 nanometers, which corroborates similar observations of isolated actin filaments by electron microscopy.

PMID:
42455931
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 16 Jul 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.