{"doi":"10.3389/fimmu.2022.856977","title":"Ena/VASP Protein-Mediated Actin Polymerization Contributes to Naïve CD8+ T Cell Activation and Expansion by Promoting T Cell–APC Interactions In Vivo","abstract":"Naïve T cell activation in secondary lymphoid organs such as lymph nodes (LNs) occurs upon recognition of cognate antigen presented by antigen presenting cells (APCs). T cell activation requires cytoskeleton rearrangement and sustained interactions with APCs. Enabled/vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein (Ena/VASP) proteins are a family of cytoskeletal effector proteins responsible for actin polymerization and are frequently found at the leading edge of motile cells. Ena/VASP proteins have been implicated in motility and adhesion in various cell types, but their role in primary T cell interstitial motility and activation has not been explored. Our goal was to determine the contribution of Ena/VASP proteins to T cell–APC interactions, T cell activation, and T cell expansion in vivo . Our results showed that naïve T cells from Ena/VASP-deficient mice have a significant reduction in antigen-specific T cell accumulation following Listeria monocytogenes infection. The kinetics of T cell expansion impairment were further confirmed in Ena/VASP-deficient T cells stimulated via dendritic cell immunization. To investigate the cause of this T cell expansion defect, we analyzed T cell–APC interactions in vivo by two-photon microscopy and observed fewer Ena/VASP-deficient naïve T cells interacting with APCs in LNs during priming. We also determined that Ena/VASP-deficient T cells formed conjugates with significantly less actin polymerization at the T cell–APC synapse, and that these conjugates were less stable than their WT counterparts. Finally, we found that Ena/VASP-deficient T cells have less LFA-1 polarized to the T cell–APC synapse. Thus, we conclude that Ena/VASP proteins contribute to T cell actin remodeling during T cell–APC interactions, which promotes the initiation of stable T cell conjugates during APC scanning. Therefore, Ena/VASP proteins are required for efficient activation and expansion of T cells in vivo .","journal":"Frontiers in Immunology","year":2022,"id":271787,"datarank":0.38474240361923057,"base_score":2.5649493574615367,"endowment":2.5649493574615367,"self_citation_contribution":0.38474240361923057,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.38474240361923057,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":12,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9508,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":511684,"name":"Jeremy Rahkola","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":826629,"name":"Ashton L. Sigler","orcid":"0000-0002-9889-7295","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":937625,"name":"Jeffrey W. Chung","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":937626,"name":"Benjamin A. S. Willett","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":351178,"name":"Ross M. Kedl","orcid":"0000-0002-9065-7895","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":400356,"name":"Rachel S. Friedman","orcid":"0000-0001-7549-6387","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":724563,"name":"Jordan Jacobelli","orcid":"0000-0001-6612-6704","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":760945,"name":"Monique M. Waldman","orcid":"0000-0002-2093-8616","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":81,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:27:39.717534Z","pmid":"35757762","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}