It is well established that the CD154/CD40 interaction is required for T cell-dependent B cell differentiation and maturation. However, the early molecular and structural mechanisms that orchestrate CD154 and CD40 signaling at the T cell/APC contact site are not well understood. We demonstrated that CD40 engagement induces the formation of disulfide-linked (dl) CD40 homodimers that predominantly associate with detergent-resistant membrane microdomains. Mutagenesis and biochemical analyses revealed that (a) the integrity of the detergentresistant membranes is necessary for dl-CD40 homodimer formation, (b) the cytoplasmic Cys 238 of CD40 is the target for the de novo disulfide oxidation induced by receptor oligomerization, and (c) dl-CD40 homodimer formation is required for CD40-induced interleukin-8 secretion. Stimulation of CD154-positive T cells with staphylococcal enterotoxin E superantigen that mimics nominal antigen in initiating cognate T cell/APC interaction revealed that dl-CD40 homodimer formation is required for interleukin-2 production by T cells. These findings indicate that dl-CD40 homodimer formation has a physiological role in regulating bidirectional signaling.Primary immune responses are initiated by specific physical interactions between antigen-specific T cells and antigen-presenting cells (APCs), 4 resulting in bidirectional signal transducing events that modulate cell functions (1). Various cytokine and co-stimulatory receptors provide the input to direct these processes. Elucidating the mechanisms underlying the regulation of cell/cell interactions is thus crucial for further understanding the immunological responses and improving therapeutic strategies aimed at treating cell/cell interaction-mediated human diseases. CD154 and CD40 molecules are pairs of ligand/receptor that belong to the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and TNF receptor (TNFR) superfamily and that play a pivotal role in cell/cell interactions (1). In B cells, the CD154/CD40 interaction is responsible for clonal expansion, germinal center formation, isotype switching, affinity maturation, and rescue from surface Ig-induced apoptosis. In nonhematopoietic cells, ligation of CD40 with CD154 enhances the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-␣. The absence or disruption of the CD154/CD40 pathway leads to a severe perturbation of the immune system, for example, in X-linked immunodeficiency with hyper-IgM (1). This observation has been confirmed using CD154 and CD40 knock-out mice (2, 3). Like most ligand/receptor pairs, the CD154/CD40 interaction leads to a bidirectional signal that leads to proliferation and IL-2 production (3) as well as various cellular events that modulate T cell functions.Because CD40 has no kinase domain, the transmission of its intracellular signals passes via the recruitment of several adaptor proteins, such as Jak3 and TNFR-associated factor (TRAF) proteins, to specific domains in its cytoplasmic tail. This results in the activation of members of the Src kinase family (such as Ly...

CanadaCD40, a member of the TNF receptor family, is expressed on a variety of immune and nonimmune cells. Its interaction with its ligand, CD154, plays a pivotal role in humoral and cellmediated immunity. A low level of CD40 is constitutively associated within membrane lipid rafts and, upon engagement, this level is significantly enhanced. In this study, our objective is to evaluate the process of CD40/lipid raft association in terms of the signals required for its initiation and the resulting biological outcomes. Here, we show the CD40/lipid raft association to be independent of PI-3-kinase, Src family kinases and p38 MAPK pathways. Moreover, CD40 lacking its intracellular domain, which is usually required for CD40-mediated signaling, still localizes to lipid rafts upon engagement, confirming that the CD40/ lipid raft association is independent of signaling events. As to the biological outcomes of the CD40/lipid raft association, we show that disrupting lipid raft integrity selectively abolishes CD40-mediated Akt phosphorylation. In addition, replacing the transmembrane domain of CD40 with that of CD45 (a protein excluded from lipid rafts) dramatically reduced CD40-mediated Akt phosphorylation and B7.1 upregulation, while not influencing p38, ERK and JNK activation. Together, these findings clarify the requirements for CD40/lipid raft association and the signals triggered upon CD40 engagement by CD154.Keywords: CD40 . Lipid rafts . Signaling . Transmembrane domain Supporting Information available online IntroductionInteraction between the TNFR, CD40 and its ligand CD154 drives crucial steps in humoral immune responses [1][2][3]. Notably, the CD40/CD154 interaction is critical for the affinity maturation of immunoglobulins (Ig), the development of long-lived plasma B cells and the clonal expansion of memory B cells [1,4,5]. In the absence of intrinsic tyrosine kinase activity, CD40 transmits its intracellular signal via recruitment of several adaptor proteins, such as JAK3 [6] and TNFR-associated factor (TRAF) proteins [5], to specific domains in the CD40 cytoplasmic tail [4,[7][8][9]. This results in the activation of members of the Src kinase family (such as Lyn and Fyn), and other protein tyrosine kinases (such as Syk and Btk) [10,11]; the activation of PI-3 kinase and phospholipase Cg2 [11] and the activation of the MAP kinases p38, JNK and ERK [12][13][14].Lipid rafts are detergent-resistant plasma membrane microdomains that are enriched in cholesterol and sphingolipids. Being 2358scaffolds of many signaling effectors including lipid-anchored proteins (such as Thy-1 and alkaline phosphatase) and signaling molecules (such as some Src kinase family members), lipid rafts act as platforms to initiate and regulate signal transduction processes in many cellular models [15,16]. Engagement of CD40 molecules leads to CD40 clustering into ceramide-enriched lipid rafts of living human B cells [17,18]. Common early events following CD40 clustering in mouse B cells [19] and in human dendritic cells [20] include Lyn act...

The discovery of new functions for CD154 and CD40 molecules has expanded our knowledge to claim that CD154 plays well beyond its postulated role in adaptive immunity. Active research in this area has outlined an important role of CD154 and its receptor CD40 in the physiopathology of autoimmunity. CD154/CD40 interactions have been shown to underlay inflammatory events characterizing autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosous, and multiple sclerosis. Besides CD40, three additional receptors were recently discovered for CD154, namely, IIb 3, 5 1 and Mac-1 integrins. This review gives an overview on CD154 and its receptors, and outlines the function of CD154/CD40 interactions in both normal and autoimmune states. Moreover, the potential usefulness of various CD154-interfering agents in treatment/prevention of autoimmune events is discussed.

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