Lipid-Oriented Live-Cell Distinction of B and T Lymphocytes
Haw‐Young Kwon, Raj Kumar Das, Gun Tae Jung, Hong‐Guen Lee, Sun Hyeok Lee, Stuart N. Berry, Justin Kok Soon Tan, Solip Park, Jae‐Seong Yang, Soohyun Park, Kangkyun Baek, Kyeng Min Park, Jae Won Lee, Yunkyu Choi, Ki Hean Kim, Ki Hean Kim, Sangho Kim, Kwang Pyo Kim, Kwang Pyo Kim, Nam‐Young Kang, Kimoon Kim, Kimoon Kim, Young‐Tae Chang
Abstract
The identification of each cell type is essential for understanding multicellular communities. Antibodies set as biomarkers have been the main toolbox for cell-type recognition, and chemical probes are emerging surrogates. Herein we report the first small-molecule probe, CDgB, to discriminate B lymphocytes from T lymphocytes, which was previously impossible without the help of antibodies. Through the study of the origin of cell specificity, we discovered an unexpected novel mechanism of membrane-oriented live-cell distinction. B cells maintain higher flexibility in their cell membrane than T cells and accumulate the lipid-like probe CDgB more preferably. Because B and T cells share common ancestors, we tracked the cell membrane changes of the progenitor cells and disclosed the dynamic reorganization of the membrane properties over the lymphocyte differentiation progress. This study casts an orthogonal strategy for the small-molecule cell identifier and enriches the toolbox for live-cell distinction from complex cell communities.