Researchers' Proposals

Receptor patterns and nonrandom topography in plasma membrane of Lymphocytes.

Modern fluorescence spectroscopy and Scanning Force microscopies (Atomic Force-, Scanning Nearfield Optical Microscopies, etc.) revealed that some important receptor kinds (HLA-s; ICAM-1; IL2; IL15, etc) are non-randomly codistributed in the lipid microdomains of the plasma membrane, generally known as lipid rafts. These receptor patterns carry information on the immediate past and the future of the lymphocytes. The above sophisticated technologies can offer an acceptable time time-window to recognise these molecular formations at nm level. These receptor patterns, which have genetic origin, may have messages to take them into consideration when diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic conclusions are drawn.