Abstract The modulation of adhesive interaction between lymphocyte progenitors and bone marrow stroma may critically determine the maturation and migration of B cell progenitors. mAb against CD9 and beta 1 integrins are reported to induce the homotypic adhesion of pre-B cells. We present evidence that the anti-CD9 mAb 50H.19 and ALB6 but not the proaggregatory anti-VLA-4 mAb 44H6 also enhance the Fc-independent heterotypic adhesion of the human pre-B cell lines NALM-6 and HOON to bone-marrow stromal fibroblasts (BM-FB) but not to bone marrow stroma. CD9-enhanced binding of NALM-6 cells to BM-FB was inhibited 58% by the anti-VLA-4 mAb HP2/1, 36% by the anti-VLA-5 mAb BIIG2, and 99% by their combination. The mAb effectively inhibited adhesion when prebound to NALM-6 cells but not when prebound to BM-FB. The anti-VCAM-1 mAb E1/6 inhibited CD9-enhanced adhesion by only 14% suggesting the involvement of other ligands. Adhesion was inhibited by mAbs against the COOH-terminus and central cell binding domains of fibronectin, as well as by the corresponding CS1 and RGD peptides. Adhesion was not affected by H-7 and sphingosine, inhibitors of protein kinase C. These results suggest that perturbation of CD9 on pre-B cells promotes recognition of stromal cell fibronectin by VLA-4 and VLA-5 and implicates CD9 as a novel regulator of inside-out signaling relevant to B lymphopoiesis.

Masellis-Smith, A., & Shaw, A. R. (1994). CD9-regulated adhesion. Anti-CD9 monoclonal antibody induce pre-B cell adhesion to bone marrow fibroblasts through de novo recognition of fibronectin. The Journal of Immunology, 152(6), 2768–2777.