Membrane microdomains play an important role in the regulation of natural killer (NK) cell activities. These cholesterol-rich membrane domains are enriched at the activating immunological synapse and several activating NK-cell receptors are known to localize to membrane microdomains upon receptor engagement. In contrast, inhibitory receptors do not localize in these specialized membrane domains. In addition, the functional competence of educated NK cells correlates with a confinement of activating receptors in membrane microdomains. However, the molecular basis for this confinement is unknown. Here, we investigate the structural requirements for the recruitment of the humanactivating NK-cell receptors NKG2D and 2B4 to detergent-resistant membrane fractions in the murine BA/F3 cell line and in the human NK-cell line NKL. This stimulation-dependent recruitment occurred independently of the intracellular domains of the receptors. However, either interfering with the association between NKG2D and DAP10, or mutating the transmembrane region of 2B4 impacted the recruitment of the receptors to detergentresistant membrane fractions and modulated the function of 2B4 in NK cells. Our data suggest a potential interaction between the transmembrane region of NK-cell receptors and membrane lipids as a molecular mechanism involved in determining the membrane confinement of activating NK-cell receptors.Keywords: 2B4 r Activating receptor r Lipid rafts r Membrane microdomains r NK cells r NKG2D r Signal transduction Additional supporting information may be found in the online version of this article at the publisher's web-site Introduction NK cells are large, granular lymphocytes of the innate immune system that contribute to successful immune responses by killing virally infected or transformed cells and by producing various cytokines [1][2][3]. The function of NK cells is controlled by the integration of signals from activating and inhibitory surface receptors Correspondence: Prof. Carsten Watzl e-mail: watzl@ifado.de [4]. Although many inhibitory receptors recognize MHC class I or MHC-related molecules on target cells, activating receptors interact with a range of ligands, whose expression can be induced by infection, transformation, or other forms of cellular stress [5]. Contact with a susceptible target cell induces NK-cell adherence and the formation of the immunological synapse (NKIS) with the target cell. This is followed by the polarization of surface receptors and signaling molecules and the clustering of membrane microdomains at the NKIS [6]. Subsequently, the NK cells polarize their lytic granules and kill the attached target cell by directed degranulation and they secrete cytokines such as 8].C 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim www.eji-journal.eu Eur. J. Immunol. 2015. 45: 1258-1269 Leukocyte signaling
1259Membrane microdomains, also called lipid rafts, are defined as cholesterol-and sphingolipid-rich membrane domains that affect various cellular functions, such as signaling, protein sorting, or endocy...