Cell Communication in Nervous and Immune System

Description

At first glance, the nervous and immune systems appear very different. However, both systems have developed mechanisms for memory formation – though of quite different quality and significance for the organism. One striking example is that both systems form and communicate via synapses armed with similar sets of proteins. This collection of reviews, contributed by internationally recognized immunologists and molecular and cellular neurobiologists, puts side by side cellular communication devices and signaling mechanisms in the immune and nervous systems and discusses mechanisms of interaction between the two systems, the significance of which has only recently been fully appreciated. Molecular Organization and Assembly of the Postsynaptic Density of Excitatory Brain Synapses....Pages 1-23 Molecular Organization and Assembly of the Central Inhibitory Postsynapse....Pages 25-47 Molecular Organization and Assembly of the Presynaptic Active Zone of Neurotransmitter Release....Pages 49-68 Extracellular Matrix and Synaptic Functions....Pages 69-97 Electrical Synapses – Gap Junctions in the Brain....Pages 99-128 Neuron-Glia Interactions at the Node of Ranvier....Pages 129-149 Cognate Interaction Between Endothelial Cells and T Cells....Pages 151-173 Impact of the Immunological Synapse on T Cell Signaling....Pages 175-198 The Biophysics of T Lymphocyte Activation In Vitro and In Vivo....Pages 199-218 Molecular Regulation of Cytoskeletal Rearrangements During T Cell Signalling....Pages 219-244 Membrane-Proximal Signaling Events in Beta-2 Integrin Activation....Pages 245-257 Regulation of Immune Cell Entry into the Central Nervous System....Pages 259-280 Cell–cell communication by Endocannabinoids during Immune Surveillance of the Central Nervous System....Pages 281-305