Abstract
The majority of the leukocytes cross the endothelial lining of the vessels through cell-cell junctions. The junctional protein Vascular Endothelial (VE)-cadherin is transiently re-distributed from sites of cell-cell contacts during passage of leukocytes. VE-cadherin is part of a protein complex comprising p120-catenin and beta-catenin as intracellular partners. Beta-catenin connects VE-cadherin to alpha-catenin. This VE-cadherin-catenin complex is believed to dynamically control endothelial cell-cell junctions and to regulate the passage of leukocytes, although not much is known about the role of alpha-and beta-catenin during the process of transendothelial migration (TEM). In order to study the importance of the interaction between alpha-and beta-catenin in TEM, we used a cell-permeable version of the peptide encoding the binding site of alpha-catenin for beta-catenin (S27D). The data show that S27D interferes with the interaction between alpha-and beta-catenin and induces a reversible decrease in electrical resistance of the endothelial monolayer. In addition, S27D co-localized with beta-catenin at cell-cell junctions. Surprisingly, transmigration of neutrophils across endothelial monolayers was blocked in the presence of S27D. In conclusion, our results show for the first time that the association of alpha-catenin with the cadherin-catenin complex is required for efficient leukocyte TEM
Original language | Undefined/Unknown |
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Pages (from-to) | 695-705 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | International Journal of Biological Sciences |
Volume | 5 |
Issue number | 7 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2009 |
Keywords
- Catenin
- Cell-cell junction
- Permeability
- Transendothelial migration
- VE-cadherin