How much time does it take for the naive T Cell to get activated?

Question

Suppose a naive T cell comes in contact with an APC. How much time does it take for the T Cell to get activated and within how much time does the T cell move away from the APC due to incompatibility in their receptor structure? What is the probability that there will be activation of a naive T cell by an APC (I mean to ask that how many T cells should come in contact with APC before a T cell gets activated, some number like say 1 out of every 1000 t cell gets activated by an APC at a particular time)? Any resource you can provide that gives a quantitative value of the interaction of T cell with APC, please do if possible.

Answer 1

This is a very interesting topic and one that many researchers have asked. The activation of T cells happens in three steps, and this leads to different timing in the activation process, minutes, hours, and even days.

This paper will be of interest to you as it reviews key findings in each of the activation steps and attempts to answer your question about how many APCs it takes to activate a T cell. Other authors that have studied this area are Mark Davis (Stanford University) and Uli von Andrian (Harvard).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4633513/