Gronloh, M. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2024

Leukocytes use endothelial membrane tunnels to extravasate the vasculature

Upon inflammation, leukocytes extravasate through endothelial cells. When they extravasate in a paracellular manner, it is generally accepted that neighbouring endothelial cells physically disconnect to open cell-cell junctions, allowing leukocytes to cross. When carefully examining endothelial junctions, we found a partial membrane overlap of endothelial cells beyond VE-cadherin distribution. These overlaps are regulated by actin polymerization and, although marked by, do not require PECAM-1, nor VE-cadherin. Neutrophils prefer wider membrane overlaps as exit sites. Detailed 3D analysis of endothelial membrane dynamics during paracellular neutrophil transmigration in real-time, at high spatiotemporal resolution using resonant confocal and lattice light-sheet imaging, revealed that overlapping endothelial membranes form a tunnel during neutrophil transmigration. These tunnels are formed by the neutrophil lifting the membrane of the upper endothelial cell while indenting and crawling over the membrane of the underlying endothelial cell. Our work shows that endothelial cells do not simply retract upon passage of neutrophils but provide membrane tunnels, allowing neutrophils to extravasate. This discovery defines the 3D multicellular architecture in which the paracellular transmigration of neutrophils occurs.

cell biology↗

bioRxiv2021

Heterogeneity and dynamics of ERK and Akt activation by G protein-coupled receptors depend on the activated heterotrimeric G proteins

Kinases are fundamental regulators of cellular functions and play key roles in GPCR-mediated signaling pathways. Kinase activities are generally inferred from cell lysates, hiding the heterogeneity of the individual cellular responses to extracellular stimuli. Here, we study the dynamics and heterogeneity of ERK and Akt in genetically identical cells in response to activation of endogenously expressed GPCRs. We use kinase translocation reporters, high-content imaging, automated segmentation and clustering methods to assess cell-to-cell signaling heterogeneity. We observed ligand-concentration dependent response kinetics to histamine, a2-adrenergic, and S1P receptor stimulation that varied between cells. By using G protein inhibitors, we observed that Gq mediated the ERK and Akt responses to histamine. In contrast, Gi was necessary for ERK and Akt activation in response to 2-adrenergic receptor activation. ERK and Akt were also strongly activated by S1P, showing high heterogeneity at the single cell level, especially for ERK. In all cases, the cellular heterogeneity was not explained by distinct pre-stimulation levels or saturation of the measured response. Cluster analysis of time-series derived from 68,000 cells obtained under the different conditions revealed several distinct populations of cells that display similar response dynamics. The single-cell ERK responses to histamine and brimonidine showed remarkably similar dynamics, despite the activation of different heterotrimeric G proteins. In contrast, the ERK response dynamics to S1P showed high heterogeneity, which was reduced by the inhibition of Gi. To conclude, we have set up an imaging and analysis strategy that reveals substantial cell-to-cell heterogeneity in kinase activity driven by GPCRs. O_FIG_DISPLAY_L [Figure 1] M_FIG_DISPLAY C_FIG_DISPLAY

cell biology↗