Expression of vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 by follicular dendritic cells.
Follicular dendritic cells are the major supporting cell of the germinal center microenvironment. The major function of follicular dendritic cells is to present antigen to B cells in secondary lymphoid tissues. Through cell-cell interactions, FDCs are hypothesized to be central to the regulation of normal B cell growth and differentiation. The major receptor-ligand pair which mediates B cell-FDC adhesion is the beta 1 integrin VLA-4, present on B cells and VCAM-1 expressed on FDCs. Follicular non-Hodgkin's lymphomas similarly employ this mechanism to bind to neoplastic germinal centers. The VCAM-1 molecule can exist as a 6 or 7 immunoglobulin domain form. The major form of VCAM-1 on activated endothelium is the 7 domain form. In this report we have determined by polymerase chain reaction of purified FDCs that they express predominantly mRNA for 7 domain VCAM-1. It is likely that the two forms of VCAM-1 are associated with distinct functions, therefore the expression of 7 domain VCAM-1 may be important in normal and neoplastic B cell-FDC interactions.
Department Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
M J
MJ
Huang
L
L
Osborn
J
J
Svahn
S B
SB
Schiffer
L
L
Eliseo
L J
LJ
Zhou
K
K
Rhynhart
C D
CD
Benjamin
A S
AS
Freedman
D001483:Base Sequence; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D015870:Gene Expression; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D012016:Reference Values; D019010:Vascular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 / Q000096:biosynthesis*
D019010:Vascular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1