Answer to Question #150662 in General Chemistry for marina

Question

Describe the mechanism of action of tunneling molecules – killer nanotubes

Answer 1

Subsequent studies have identified TNTs or similar structures in various types of cells, and have also revealed variations in the length, diameter. and cytoskeletal components of these structures among different cell types For example, TNTs of PC12 cells are 50-200 nm in diameter, and they can be up to several cell diameters long.

Myeloid-linage dendritic cells (DCs) and monocytes propagate their calcium signals within seconds to other cells connected by TNTs, and this intercellular transmission of Ca 2+ signals induced morphological changes such as lamelipodia extension in recipient cells, one of the earliest responses seen in phagocytes following stimulation. Since then, calcium flux has been shown to propagate via these structures in many other cell types (Kimura et al. 2012).his is consistent with a previous report showing that Fas signaling activates the Rho GTPase family, and this activation facilitates Fas-induced cell death. Intriguingly, the formation process of TNT by Fas ligand is not dependent on caspase activation, revealing that Fas signaling induces TNT formation.