Close contact fluctuations: The seeding of signalling domains in the immunological synapse

Mathematics Institute, University of Warwick - Coventry CV4 7AL, UK

Received: 22 August 2006
Accepted: 12 December 2006

Abstract

We analyse the size and density of thermally induced regions of close contact in cell : cell contact interfaces within a harmonic potential approximation, estimating these regions to be below one-tenth of a micron across. Our calculations indicate that as the distance between the close contact threshold depth and the mean membrane-membrane separation increases, the density of close contact patches decreases exponentially while there is only a minimal variation in their mean size. The technique developed can be used to calculate the probability of first crossing in reflection symmetry violating systems.