Transduction of specific inhibition of HuT 78 human T cell chemotaxis by type I vasoactive intestinal peptide receptors.

The major immunoregulatory effects of vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) are mediated by structurally distinct types I (VIPR1) and II (VIPR2) G protein-associated receptors on some T cells, B cells, and macrophages. Identification of the separate immunologic activities of each type of VIPR has been complicated by the usual expression of only VIPR2 or of VIPR1 and VIPR2 together by most human T cells obtainable in sufficient number for functional analyses. The results of reverse-transcription PCR, Western blot, and [125I]VIP-binding studies have established that HuT 78 cultured human lymphoma T cells bear a mean of 75,000 VIPR1s per cell with a mean Kd of 3.3 nM, which transduce mean maximal increases in intracellular concentration of cAMP of 2.1-fold (ED50 = 72 nM), but no VIPR2s. HuT 78 T cells, in contrast to T cells that express VIPR2, did not respond to VIP by chemotaxis through micropore filters without or with a top layer of basement membrane-like Matrigel. Matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-dependent in situ cleavage of [3H]type IV human collagen in the layer of Matrigel by HuT 78 T cells also was not stimulated by VIP. In contrast, IL-4 and TNF-alpha both stimulated HuT 78 T cell chemotaxis and in situ MMP activity at respective optimal concentrations ranging from 3 x 10(-10) M to 3 x 10(-9) M and 10(-10) M to 3 x 10(-10) M. VIP inhibited significantly HuT 78 T cell chemotaxis through Matrigel in response to both IL-4 and TNF-alpha, as a result of suppression of both chemotactic mobility, assessed by migration through micropore filters without Matrigel, and in situ MMP activity. The transduction of opposite effects of VIP on T cell migration through a model basement membrane by VIPR1 and VIPR2 suggests that the net chemotactic response of most T cells to VIP is determined by the VIPR2/VIPR1 ratio and that the predominant expression of VIPR1 would stabilize T cell populations in lymphoid follicles and tissue infiltrates.