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1000
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Abstract/Summary
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Cellular interactions are often essential to regulate immune cell activities during an immune response. To understand the details of this process, it is necessary to study individual receptor/ligand interactions in a quantitative fashion. However, this is often very difficult or even impossible when using real cells for stimulation. Here, we present a method to use cell-sized latex beads for such studies. These beads can be coated with agonistic antibodies or specific ligands in a defined and quantifiable fashion. This creates the possibility of titrating the strength of the stimulation for a specific receptor in a three-dimensional system. Using natural killer (NK) cells as an example, we demonstrate how these beads can be used to stimulate NK cell responses.
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