New work by researcher Stefan Wieser at the University of Innsbruck’s Institute of Zoology has found an incredible thing. His research has shown the power of temperature to steer immune cells’ behavior. Wieser’s research was conducted at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA). Published in the journal Developmental Cell, it pinpoints how increased temperatures enhance immune cells’ mobility and reactivity.
Wieser and his colleagues from the QBIO group studied effects of temperature. They aimed at understanding specifically the effect of temperature on immune cell motility. To investigate these subcellular dynamics, the team used a cutting-edge fluorescence-microscopy apparatus that provided temperature control at the single-cell level. Their findings showed that immune cells moved in profoundly altered ways under cold and normal temperature environments.
At a chill 20 °C, immune cells stopped moving almost completely. Yet, with rising temperature, these cells started showing profound motility. This finding highlights temperature as a key physiological variable shaping the pace of immune responses. Perhaps most strikingly, leukocytes, a key immune cell type, reacted within seconds to changes in environmental temperature.
Wieser pinpointed Myosin II, a motor protein, as an important factor of the temperature sensitivity seen in immune cells. This protein is what propels the speeding up of immune responses when body temperatures rise. As temperatures increase, immune cells get activated. They fly longer distances and more quickly in their quest for pathogens.
The implications of these findings are profound. Temperature has a fundamental impact on immune cell behavior. Tracking this fundamental relationship is paving the way for a more comprehensive understanding of immune responses in human infections and inflammatory diseases. The research adds valuable support to previous work investigating the role of physiological factors as modulators of immune system efficacy.