Intracellular Localization and Constitutive Endocytosis of CXCR4 in Human CD34+ Hematopoietic Progenitor Cells

CXCR4, the stromal cell–derived factor‐1 receptor, plays an important role in the migration of hematopoietic progenitor/stem cells. The surface and cytoplasmic expression of CXCR4 on human hematopoietic CD34+ cells was investigated. We show that its surface expression is low, whereas a large part of CXCR4 protein is sequestered intracellularly. Using confocal microscopy, we demonstrated that CXCR4 is colocalized with EEA‐1, Rab5, Rab4, and Rab11, which are localized in early and recycling endosomes. No significant colocalization of CXCR4 with lysosomal markers CD63 and Lamp‐1 was detected. Using antibody feeding experiments, we report a role for CXCR4 constitutive endocytosis in subcellular localization in stably transduced UT7‐CXCR4‐GFP and CD34+ cells. Agonist‐independent endocytosis of CXCR4 occurs through clathrin‐coated vesicles. These data implicate a constitutive endocytosis in the regulation of CXCR4 membrane expression and suggest that constitutive endocytosis may be involved in the regulation of trafficking the human hematopoietic progenitor/stem cells to and in the bone marrow microenvironment.