Abstract:Integrins are transmembrane heterodimers that play a fundamental role in the migration of leukocytes to sites of infection or injury. Here, we provide evidence that the protein tyrosine phosphatase PTPN22 is a novel regulator of LFA-1 signaling in effector T-cells.PTPN22 co-localizes with its substrates at the leading edge of cells migrating on ICAM-1. Gene targeting, or expression of the autoimmune disease-associated PTPN22-R620W variant, results in hyper-phosphorylation of integrin signaling intermediates. Super-resolution imaging reveals that in the steady state PTPN22-R620 exists in large clusters that disaggregate upon LFA-1 stimulation, permitting increased association with its binding partners at the membrane. Failure to retain PTPN22-R620W molecules at the membrane leads to increased LFA-1 clustering and integrin-mediated cell adhesion. Our data define a novel mechanism for fine-tuning integrin signaling in T-cells, and a new paradigm of autoimmunity in man in which disease susceptibility is underpinned by inherited perturbations of integrin function.One Sentence Summary: PTPN22 is a negative regulator of integrin signaling and loss-offunction mutants increase cell adhesion.3

The regulation of cell adhesion and motility is complex and requires the intracellular trafficking of integrins to and from sites of cell adhesion, especially in fast-moving cells such as leukocytes. The Rab family of guanosine triphosphatases (GTPases) is essential for vesicle transport, and vesicles mediate intracellular integrin trafficking. We showed that RhoB regulates the vesicular transport of the integrin LFA-1 along the microtubule network in migrating T lymphocytes. Impairment in RhoB function resulted in the accumulation of both LFA-1 and the recycling endosomal marker Rab11 at the rear of migrating T lymphocytes and decreased the association between these molecules. T lymphocytes lacking functional RhoB exhibited impaired recycling and subsequently decreased surface amounts of LFA-1, leading to reduced T cell adhesion and migration mediated by the cell adhesion molecule ICAM-1 (intercellular adhesion molecule-1). We propose that vesicle-associated RhoB is a regulator of the Rab11-mediated recycling of LFA-1 to the cell surface, an event that is necessary for T lymphocyte motility.

Key Points RNA interference screen targeted to primary human HSPCs identified CYTH1 as a crucial mediator of cell adhesion. CYTH1 is required for homing and proper bone marrow localization of HSPCs following transplantation.

Localization microscopy methods like Stochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy (STORM) are very well suited for exploring clustering of proteins, as the data inherently provide a list of molecular coordinates. Here we use state‐of‐art cluster analysis algorithms (DBSCAN) to explore the clustering behaviour of different affinity forms of the integrin LFA‐1. It has been suggested that LFA‐1 may form clusters, in order to increase the avidity to ICAM‐1. However, this hypothesis still seems to be controversial. In this study, we found, variations in clustering behaviour among the different affinity forms of LFA‐1 in migrating T‐cells. We found that panLFA‐1 is located in clusters throughout the polarised cell on ICAM‐1, with an increased density of molecules and clusters in the mid area and rear of the cell, whereas the intermediate and high affinity form of LFA‐1 showed an increased number in the mid area of a migrating cell and the high affinity form of LFA‐1 in the front and rear. Together, these data suggest that, in addition to LFA‐1 conformation, protein clustering might play a role in controlling cell‐substrate adhesion on ICAM‐1.By applying the cluster analysis algorithm DBSCAN to localization microscopy data, integrin clusters could be identified and different cluster parameters could be quantified.

To enable cells to move forward, cell surface integrins are internalized into an endosomal compartment and subsequently intracellularly transported to be re-exposed at a new site on the cell membrane. Leukocytes are the fastest migrating cell type in the human body, which express the leukocyte-specific integrin LFA-1. Here, we describe a flow cytometry-based assay that allows the quantification of LFA-1 internalization and its re-expression on the cell surface in T lymphocytes. An advantage of using flow cytometry-based assay over biochemical methods is the low number of needed cells. This protocol can be also used to measure recycling of other receptors.