Involvement of CD44 variant isoforms in hyaluronate adhesion by human activated T cells

The standard, 85–95‐kDa form of the hyaluronic acid (HA) receptor CD44 and a number of CD44 mRNA splice variants play important roles in immune responses and tumor metastasis. Variants carrying exon 6 (v6), or 9 (v9) products are transiently expressed on activated human T cells. Here, modulation experiments with specific monoclonal antibodies (mAb) indicate that v6 and v9 are expressed independently on distinct sets of CD44 molecules, and that their combined expression is necessary for HA adhesion. Moreover, the finding that mAb‐mediated cross‐linking of v6 and v9 promoted cytosolic free Ca2+ mobilization and co‐stimulated CD3‐triggered T cell proliferation indicates that v6 and v9 possess signaling and effector function activation ability. Finally, HA‐mediated signaling appears to be required for variant‐dependent adhesion to HA. The observation that soluble HA promoted cytosolic free Ca2+ mobilization indicates that HA‐induced Ca2+ mobilization can occur during T cell‐HA interaction. Since Ca2+ mobilization was inhibited by pretreatment of cells with an anti‐CD44 mAb directed against the HA‐binding domain of CD44, CD44 receptors appear to be involved in HA‐mediated signal transduction. The requirement of cytosolic free Ca2+ for adhesion is shown by the fact that ionomycin (a Ca2+ ionophore) stimulated, and EGTA (a Ca2+ chelator), inhibited HA adhesion. In addition, cytoskeletal functional activation is required for cell adhesion to HA, since drugs that block actin polymerization, such as cytochalasin B, or actomyosin contraction, such as the calmodulin antagonist W‐7, inhibited cell adhesion to HA. As this adhesion is also ADP ribosylation‐sensitive, it may involve a GTP‐dependent function of CD44v, i.e. ankyrin binding. Our data indicate that there is a functional hierarchy among the CD44 molecules expressed on human peripheral blood T cells and that the splice variants, as compared to the standard form, exhibit a greater HA binding ability which involves CD44‐mediated signaling and effector function activation.