CAMs and Igs: cell adhesion and the evolutionary origins of immunity.

The lymphoid system and cells of immunity are as morphologically well defined as those of any complex organ but in addition they show dynamic long-range interactions between the fluid tissues (lymphocytes, monocytes, etc.) and the solid, vascular and generative tissues and organs which they comprise. Given the observation that CAMs are present in epithelial components of lymphoid organs, it appears that, in their ontogeny, the organs of immunity will share a common principle of morphoregulation by CAMs with brains, feathers and other parts of the phenotype. As discussed here, this principle is a regulatory one operating across many levels of organization from the genes to tissues and back again (see Fig. 1). At some early point in the evolution of the immune system, a gene corresponding to an N-CAM precursor must have duplicated to provide a basis for the Ig superfamily with its increasing specializations for recognition and for cellular regulation during the immune response. Lymphocyte cellular families also developed later specializations (along with other leukocytes) for adhesive functions accessory to specific recognition. As far as we can see, the molecules for these accessory functions only remotely resemble CAMs, but closely resemble receptors for matrix molecules and SAMs. What CAMs and Ig superfamily members have in common is an evolutionary path and important roles in mediating complex regulatory responses that arise from cell-cell interactions. In the one case, this regulation leads to morphology, and in the other, to immune recognition. The first depends directly upon pattern (the formation of definite tissue structure); the regulation of the second also depends upon pattern to the extent that its function is dependent upon the morphology of lymphoid organs and vasculature. But although specific immune recognition depends locally upon adhesion through special mechanisms, it does not lead to morphology. One must not therefore impute too much in the physiological sense to the resemblance among brain molecules and molecules of the immune system. CAMs themselves are not directly histotypic at the level of individual differentiated cells but rather are used to link early tissue boundaries in induction and function in a wide variety of different tissues. As a consequence, N-CAM is central to the formation and maintenance of neural tissue but has a much wider tissue distribution and a fundamental role in very early embryogenesis as is the case with other primary CAMs. Thus, the immune system did not evolve from the nervous system, but from a cell adhesion system essential to both.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)