Increased DC trafficking to lymph nodes and contact hypersensitivity in junctional adhesion molecule-A–deficient mice

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Abstract

Junctional adhesion molecule-A (JAM-A) is a transmembrane adhesive protein expressed at endothelial junctions and in leukocytes. In the present work, we found that DCs also express JAM-A. To evaluate the biological relevance of this observation, Jam-A–/– mice were generated and the functional behavior of DCs in vitro and in vivo was studied. In vitro, Jam-A–/– DCs showed a selective increase in random motility and in the capacity to transmigrate across lymphatic endothelial cells. In vivo, Jam-A–/– mice showed enhanced DC migration to lymph nodes, which was not observed in mice with endothelium-restricted deficiency of the protein. Furthermore, increased DC migration to lymph nodes was associated with enhanced contact hypersensitivity (CHS). Adoptive transfer experiments showed that JAM-A–deficient DCs elicited increased CHS in Jam-A+/+ mice, further supporting the concept of a DC-specific effect. Thus, we identified here a novel, non-redundant role of JAM-A in controlling DC motility, trafficking to lymph nodes, and activation of specific immunity.

Authors

Maria Rosaria Cera, Annalisa Del Prete, Annunciata Vecchi, Monica Corada, Ines Martin-Padura, Toshiyuki Motoike, Paolo Tonetti, Gianfranco Bazzoni, William Vermi, Francesca Gentili, Sergio Bernasconi, Thomas N. Sato, Alberto Mantovani, Elisabetta Dejana