CLEC-2 is a phagocytic activation receptor expressed on murine peripheral blood neutrophils1

CLEC-2 is a member of the ‘Dectin-1 cluster’ of C-type lectin-like receptors and was originally thought to be restricted to platelets. Here we demonstrate that murine CLEC-2 is also expressed by peripheral blood neutrophils, but only weakly by bone-marrow or elicited inflammatory neutrophils. On circulating neutrophils, CLEC-2 can mediate phagocytosis of antibody-coated beads and the production of proinflammatory cytokines, including TNFα, in response to the CLEC-2 ligand, rhodocytin. CLEC-2 possesses a tyrosine-based cytoplasmic motif similar to that of Dectin-1, and we show using chimeric analyses that the activities of this receptor are dependent on this tyrosine. Like Dectin-1, CLEC-2 can recruit the signalling kinase Syk in myeloid cells, however, stimulation of this pathway does not induce the respiratory burst. These data therefore demonstrate that CLEC-2 expression is not restricted to platelets and that it functions as an activation receptor on neutrophils.