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World J Immunol. Mar 27, 2016; 6(1): 67-74
Published online Mar 27, 2016. doi: 10.5411/wji.v6.i1.67
Noncanonical intercellular communication in immune response
Malgorzata Kloc, Jacek Z Kubiak, Xian C Li, Rafik M Ghobrial
Malgorzata Kloc, Department of Surgery, Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX 77030, United States
Malgorzata Kloc, Xian C Li, Rafik M Ghobrial, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX 77030, United States
Jacek Z Kubiak, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Unités Mixtes de Recherche 6290, Institute of Genetics and Development of Rennes, Cell Cycle Group, Faculty of Medicine, University of Rennes, Rennes, 35043 Rennes Cedex, France
Jacek Z Kubiak, Faculty of Medicine, University of Rennes 1, 35043 Rennes Cedex, France
Rafik M Ghobrial, Sherrie and Alan Conover Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation, Houston, TX 77030, United States
Author contributions: Kloc M contributed to concept, manuscript writing, figures drawing; Kubiak JZ, Li XC and Ghobrial RM contributed to manuscript co-writing.
Supported by William Stamps Farish Fund and Donald D. Hammill Foundation.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest to disclose.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Malgorzata Kloc, Department of Surgery, Methodist Hospital, 6550 Fannin St., Houston, TX 77030, United States. mkloc@houstonmethodist.org
Telephone: +1-713-4416875 Fax: +1-713-7903755
Received: July 22, 2015
Peer-review started: August 5, 2015
First decision: October 13, 2015
Revised: November 24, 2015
Accepted: December 17, 2015
Article in press: December 18, 2015
Published online: March 27, 2016
Abstract

The classical view of signaling between cells of immune system includes two major routes of intercellular communication: Through the release of extracellular molecules or a direct interaction between membrane bound receptor and its membrane bound ligand, which initiate a cascade of signaling in target cell. However, recent studies indicate that besides these canonical modes of signaling there are also noncanonical routs of intercellular communications through membrane stripping/membrane exchange/trogocytosis, extracellular traps, exosomes and ectososmes/microparticles. In this review we discuss what are the components of noncanonical pathways of signaling and what role they play in immune cells interactions.

Keywords: Trogocytosis, Membrane stripping, Extracellular traps, Exosomes, Ectososmes, Microparticles

Core tip: Noncanonical routes of intercellular communications through membrane stripping, trogocytosis, extracellular traps, microparticles and exosomes and their function in immune response are highlighted.