CD9-regulated adhesion. Anti-CD9 monoclonal antibody induce pre-B cell adhesion to bone marrow fibroblasts through de novo recognition of fibronectin.

The modulation of adhesive interaction between lymphocyte progenitors and bone marrow stroma may critically determine the maturation and migration of B cell progenitors. mAb against CD9 and beta 1 integrins are reported to induce the homotypic adhesion of pre-B cells. We present evidence that the anti-CD9 mAb 50H.19 and ALB6 but not the proaggregatory anti-VLA-4 mAb 44H6 also enhance the Fc-independent heterotypic adhesion of the human pre-B cell lines NALM-6 and HOON to bone-marrow stromal fibroblasts (BM-FB) but not to bone marrow stroma. CD9-enhanced binding of NALM-6 cells to BM-FB was inhibited 58% by the anti-VLA-4 mAb HP2/1, 36% by the anti-VLA-5 mAb BIIG2, and 99% by their combination. The mAb effectively inhibited adhesion when prebound to NALM-6 cells but not when prebound to BM-FB. The anti-VCAM-1 mAb E1/6 inhibited CD9-enhanced adhesion by only 14% suggesting the involvement of other ligands. Adhesion was inhibited by mAbs against the COOH-terminus and central cell binding domains of fibronectin, as well as by the corresponding CS1 and RGD peptides. Adhesion was not affected by H-7 and sphingosine, inhibitors of protein kinase C. These results suggest that perturbation of CD9 on pre-B cells promotes recognition of stromal cell fibronectin by VLA-4 and VLA-5 and implicates CD9 as a novel regulator of inside-out signaling relevant to B lymphopoiesis.