Glycosyl-phosphatidylinositol-anchored or integral membrane forms of CD14 mediate identical cellular responses to endotoxin.

Endotoxin stimulates leukocytes to release cytokines that initiate septic shock in humans and animals. CD14, a glycosyl-phosphatidylinositol-anchored membrane glycoprotein, is an endotoxin receptor on leukocytes, and endotoxin binding to CD14 induces cytokine production. Here we show that glycosyl-phosphatidylinositol-anchored or integral membrane CD14 mediates identical cellular responses to endotoxin, including NF-kappa B activation and protein tyrosine phosphorylation. We also show that an anti-CD14 monoclonal antibody that does not block endotoxin binding to CD14 nonetheless inhibits cell activation by endotoxin. These findings suggest that binding of endotoxin to cell-surface CD14 is followed by subsequent interactions of the endotoxin-CD14 complex with additional membrane component(s) that enable transmembrane signaling. This function of CD14 may be prototypic for other members of the glycosyl-phosphatidylinositol-anchored family of proteins that do not play a primary role in signal transduction but rather are the principal ligand-binding units of membrane-bound receptor complexes.