The leukocyte common antigen, CD45, is a critical immune regulator whose activity is modulated by cytoskeletal interactions. Components of the spectrin-ankyrin cytoskeleton have been implicated in the trafficking and signaling of CD45. We have examined the lateral mobility of CD45 in resting and activated T lymphocytes using single-particle tracking and found that the receptor has decreased mobility caused by increased cytoskeletal contacts in activated cells. Experiments with cells that have disrupted ⌱ spectrin interactions show decreased cytoskeletal contacts in resting cells and attenuation of receptor immobilization in activated cells. Applying two types of population analyses to single-particle tracking trajectories, we find good agreement between the diffusion coefficients obtained using either a mean squared displacement analysis or a hidden Markov model analysis. Hidden Markov model analysis also reveals the rate of association and dissociation of CD45-cytoskeleton contacts, demonstrating the importance of this analysis for measuring cytoskeleton binding events in live cells. Our findings are consistent with a model in which multiple cytoskeletal contacts, including those with spectrin and ankyrin, participate in the regulation of CD45 lateral mobility. These interactions are a major factor in CD45 immobilization in activated cells. Furthermore, cellular activation leads to CD45 immobilization by reduction of the CD45-cytoskeleton dissociation rate. Short peptides that mimic spectrin repeat domains alter the association rate of CD45 to the cytoskeleton and cause an apparent decrease in dissociation rates. We propose a model for CD45-cytoskeleton interactions and conclude that the spectrin-ankyrin-actin network is an essential determinant of immunoreceptor mobility.The lymphocyte receptor-like protein tyrosine phosphatase, CD45, 2 is a transmembrane protein that acts as a critical component of T cell activation (1). The phosphatase activity of the CD45 cytoplasmic domain contributes to T cell activation through the removal of an inhibitory phosphate group on a membrane-associated Src family kinase, such as Tyr 505 of p56 lck (Lck) (2). Other CD45 substrates have been established in addition to Lck, including Fyn, SKAP-55, JAK, ZAP-70, and CK2 (1). The involvement of CD45 as a regulator of critical signaling pathways and autoimmune diseases highlights the importance of understanding its function.In addition to phosphoprotein substrates, CD45 interacts with a variety of molecular partners that modulate its activity. Its heavily glycosylated extracellular domain interacts with Thy1 (3) and galectins (4), and it self-associates to form dimers. Dimer formation is a process linked to both regulation of its phosphatase activity and sialylation of its ectodomain (1, 5, 6). The cytoplasmic domain of CD45 contains one catalytically active protein-tyrosine phosphatase domain (Domain 1) and one inactive domain (Domain 2) and binds to key cellular regulators of immune function such as CD45AP (7), CD2 (8), CD11a (9),...