HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

Published online before print April 3, 2008

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: jlb.1107752v1 84/1/134    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by Hegde, V. L. Articles by Nagarkatti, M. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Hegde, V. L. Articles by Nagarkatti, M.

(Journal of Leukocyte Biology. 2008;84:134-142.)
© 2008 by Society for Leukocyte Biology

CD44 mobilization in allogeneic dendritic cell–T cell immunological synapse plays a key role in T cell activation

Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, South Carolina, USA

¹Correspondence: Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, SC 29208, USA. E-mail: mnagark{at}med.sc.edu

CD44 is involved in several biological processes owing to its dual role as a cell adhesion and signaling molecule. In an allogeneic dendritic cell (DC)–T cell interaction model, we show here that CD44 gets clustered at the contact between T cells with mature but not immature DCs. Also, CD44 colocalized with lipid rafts at the immunological synapse (IS). Using DCs or T cells derived from CD44-deficient mice, we observed that the presence of CD44 on DCs and T cells is important for the formation of DC–T cell tight conjugates. However, deficiency of CD44 on DCs but not T cells affected the functional IS, as indicated by decreased phosphotyrosine and protein kinase C- enrichment at the synapse. Also, CD44-deficient DCs induced significantly decreased proliferation as well as IL-2 and IFN- production from allogeneic T cells. The polarization of CD44 at the synapse was also noted in an antigen (OVA)-specific, syngeneic DC–T cell interaction using OVA-specific T cells derived from OT-II mice. It was believed that large molecules such as CD44 were excluded from the IS. Results presented here show for the first time that CD44 is recruited to the IS during allogeneic DC and T cell interactions and plays an important role in subsequent T cell activation.

Key Words: adhesion molecule • confocal • cytokine • lipid rafts