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Blood, 1 April 2007, Vol. 109, No. 7, pp. 2806-2814. Prepublished online as a Blood First Edition Paper on December 19, 2006; DOI 10.1182/blood-2006-06-030213. This Article Full Text (PDF) Supplemental Table and Figure All Versions of this Article: blood-2006-06-030213v1 109/7/2806    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Rights and Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Coupel, S. Articles by Charreau, B. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Coupel, S. Articles by Charreau, B. Social Bookmarking                   What's this?  Previous Article  |  Next Article  Submitted June 22, 2006 Accepted November 22, 2006 Expression and release of soluble HLA-E is an immunoregulatory feature of endothelial cell activation Stephanie Coupel, Anne Moreau, Mohamed Hamidou, Vaclav Horejsi, Jean-Paul Soulillou, and Beatrice Charreau* Institut National de la Sante Et de la Recherche Medicale, Unit 643, Institut de Transplantation et de Recherche en Transplantation, Nantes, France CHU Hotel-Dieu, Service d'Anatomo-Pathologie, Nantes, France CHU Hotel-Dieu, Service de medecine interne, Nantes, France Institute of Molecular Genetics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Praha, Czech Republic * Corresponding author; email: beatrice.charreau{at}univ-nantes.fr. HLA-E belongs, with HLA-G and HLA-F, to the nonclassic MHC class I (Ib) molecules, broadly defined by a limited polymorphism and a restricted pattern of cellular expression. In contrast to HLA-G, the expression and function of HLA-E and HLA-F in physiological and pathologic processes remain poorly established. In the present study, we show that HLA-E protein expression, in normal human nonlymphoid organs is mainly restricted to endothelial cells (ECs). HLA-E is also basally expressed by B and T lymphocytes, NK cells and by macrophages. We demonstrate that TNF, IL-1 and IFN up-regulate the cell surface expression of HLA-E on ECs in vitro and induce the release of soluble HLA-E (sHLA-E). HLA-E up-regulation protects IFN-activated ECs from NK-mediated cell lysis while sHLA-E protects bystander cells. Finally, sHLA-E is not detected in normal sera and increased serum levels correlate with disease activity in patients with anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated systemic vasculitis. Thus, HLA-E expression and release of sHLA-E are features of EC activation and emphasize immunoregulatory functions of the endothelium. The present identification of soluble HLA-E molecules may have important implications in understanding the pathogenesis of immune-mediated vascular diseases and for the diagnosis and monitoring of patients. CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this? This article has been cited by other articles: A. Iannello, O. Debbeche, S. Samarani, and A. Ahmad Antiviral NK cell responses in HIV infection: I. NK cell receptor genes as determinants of HIV resistance and progression to AIDS J. Leukoc. Biol., July 1, 2008; 84(1): 1 - 26. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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