We have adapted a chemotaxis assay using human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) monolayers on microporous membranes for studying lymphocyte transendothelial chemotaxis in vitro. Supernatants of peripheral blood mononuclear cells stimulated with phytohemagglutinin (PHA) were identified as an excellent source of lymphocyte chemoattractant activity. The activity in PHA supernatant typically caused 2-6% of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) to transmigrate compared to 0.1-0.3% to media control. Checkerboard analysis demonstrated that transmigration was directional and not attributable to random locomotion. Purified T lymphocytes also underwent transendothelial chemotaxis to PHA supernatant. Using monoclonal antibodies to several human adhesion receptors, we found that the interaction between LFA-1 and ICAM-1/ICAM-2 was more important for transendothelial lymphocyte chemotaxis than the interaction between VLA-4 and VCAM-1. A monoclonal antibody to the beta 1 integrin subunit inhibited chemotaxis more than antibodies to the VLA alpha 2, alpha 3, alpha 4, or alpha 5 subunits. The transendothelial assay was used to guide purification of the lymphocyte chemoattractant activity, which we reported previously to be monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) (Carr et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (1994) 91, 3652). The adhesion molecules required for chemotaxis to MCP-1 were similar to those with PHA supernatant. The use of HUVEC in the assay enhances the signal-to-background ratio of chemotaxis and provides a model that is physiologically relevant to lymphocyte emigration from the bloodstream into sites of inflammation.

High endothelial venules (HEV) in lymphoid tissues support high levels of lymphocyte extravasion from the blood. We purified high endothelial cells from human tonsils by immunomagnetic selection with MECA-79 MAb to construct an HEV cDNA library. Differential screening of this library using cDNA probes from HEV (plus) or flat-walled vessel (minus) endothelial cells allowed us to characterize a novel human cDNA expressed to high levels in HEV. The cDNA encodes a secreted acidic calcium-binding glycoprotein of 664 aa residues, designated hevin, exhibiting 62% identity with the antiadhesive extracellular matrix protein SPARC, over a region of 232 aa spanning more than four fifths of the SPARC coding sequence. The primary structure and sequence of hevin and similar to SPARC-like proteins from rat and quail, called SC1 or QR1. Hevin could contribute to the induction or maintenance of features of the HEV endothelium that facilitate lymphocyte migration.

Monoclonal antibodies to murine vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1, CD106) revealed not only the expected VCAM-1 molecule with an apparent molecular weight of 100 kDa, but also a molecule with a smaller size of 46 kDa in stromal cells and stimulated endothelial cells. Peptide mapping suggested the 46 kDa and 100 kDa proteins were closely related. The 46 kDa, but not 100 kDa protein, was cleaved from the cell surface with phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C (PI-PLC), showing that the 46 kDa protein was a GPI-linked molecule. The 46 kDa and 100 kDa isoforms of VCAM-1 were shown to be N-glycosylated, have similar kinetics of biosynthesis, and to be partially shed from the cell surface with a slight reduction of size. TNF-alpha induced both isoforms of VCAM-1 with a similar time course of appearance on the surface of endothelial cells. The relative amounts of the 46 kDa and 100 kDa isoforms depended on the cell type examined. The GPI-anchored isoform is functionally important, because on a cell on which it was expressed almost as well as the 100 kDa isoform, treatment with PI-PLC reduced VLA-4-dependent conjugate formation.