Expression of VCAM-1 and VLA-4 dependent T-lymphocyte adhesion to dermal fibroblasts stimulated with proinflammatory cytokines.

In chronic inflammatory conditions, mononuclear cells infiltrate the involved connective tissue and may persist, perhaps because of binding to adhesion molecules on connective tissue cells, as well as extracellular matrix. Here we investigated whether vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) may be induced on human dermal fibroblasts by proinflammatory cytokines. Expression of VCAM-1 was determined by Northern blotting, cell enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and flow cytometry. Only trace amounts of VCAM-1 mRNA or protein were constitutively expressed on dermal fibroblasts but both were rapidly (within 4 hr) upregulated by tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin-1 alpha (IL-1 alpha) and somewhat slower (20 hr) by interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma). The combination of TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma had at least an additive effect. The adhesion function of the expressed VCAM-1 was examined by studying the adhesion of the Jurkat T lymphocytes to fibroblasts. Adhesion of Jurkat cells to dermal fibroblasts was markedly increased by stimulation of fibroblasts with TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma (22% of cells adhered versus 9% on unstimulated fibroblasts). The increased adhesion was inhibited to that on unstimulated fibroblasts by monoclonal antibody (mAb) to domain 1 of VCAM-1, but not by mAb to domain 4. MAb to very late antigen-4 (VLA-4), the integrin counter-receptor on lymphocytes for VCAM-1, completely inhibited the increase in Jurkat cell adhesion to activated fibroblasts and partly also inhibited basal adhesion to unstimulated fibroblasts. These results suggest that VCAM-1 expression by dermal fibroblasts is inducible at the mRNA, protein and functional levels by proinflammatory cytokines. The VLA-4/VCAM-1 pathway maybe involved in adhesive interactions between T lymphocytes and activated fibroblasts in the skin during chronic dermal inflammatory conditions.