Exp Mol Med.
2005 Apr;37(2):78-85.
CD137 induces adhesion and cytokine production in human monocytic THP-1 cells
- Affiliations
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- 1National Genome Research Institute National Institute of Health, KCDC 5 Nokbun-dong, Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul, Korea.
- 2Immunomodulation Research Center University of Ulsan, Ulsan, Korea.
- 3Department of Pharmacology, School of Dentistry, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea.
- 4Department of Anatomy, College of Medicine, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, Korea.
- 5Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Seoul National University, Dental School, Seoul, Korea.
- 6CHA Research Institute Pochun CHA University, Seongnam, Korea. kbkwack@cha.ac.kr
Abstract
- CD137, which is expressed on activated T cells, plays a critical role in inflammatory responses. However, the exact role that CD137 plays in monocytes is not fully known. Here we studied the expression and function of CD137 in human monocytic THP-1 cells, which we found constitutively expresses CD137 at the mRNA and protein level. Cross-linking of CD137 increased the secretion of IL-8 and TNF-alpha, promoted the expression of CD54 and CD11b, and increased adhesion to extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins. In particular CD137-induced adhesion of THP-1 cells was inhibited by an inhibitor of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MEK), but not by a p38 kinase inhibitor. Taken together, these results show that the adhesion and cytokine production of THP-1 cells induced by CD137 occur via activation of MEK, which results in the activation of ERK-1/2 signaling pathways. Therefore, this study suggests that CD137 induces an activating and migrating signal during inflammatory processes.