The interaction between intercellular adhesion molecules (ICAM) and the integrin leukocyte function-associated antigen-1 (LFA-1) is crucial for the regulation of several physiological and pathophysiological processes like cell-mediated elimination of tumor or virus infected cells， cancer metastasis， or inflammatory and autoimmune processes. Using purified proteins it was reported a species restriction for the interaction of ICAM-1 and LFA-1， being mouse ICAM-1 able to interact with human LFA-1 but not human ICAM-1 with mouse LFA-1. However， results employing tumor cells transfected with human ICAM-1 suggest that functionally mouse LFA-1 can recognize human ICAM-1. In order to clarify the interspecies c... More
The interaction between intercellular adhesion molecules (ICAM) and the integrin leukocyte function-associated antigen-1 (LFA-1) is crucial for the regulation of several physiological and pathophysiological processes like cell-mediated elimination of tumor or virus infected cells， cancer metastasis， or inflammatory and autoimmune processes. Using purified proteins it was reported a species restriction for the interaction of ICAM-1 and LFA-1， being mouse ICAM-1 able to interact with human LFA-1 but not human ICAM-1 with mouse LFA-1. However， results employing tumor cells transfected with human ICAM-1 suggest that functionally mouse LFA-1 can recognize human ICAM-1. In order to clarify the interspecies cross-reactivity of the ICAM-1/LFA-1 interaction， we have performed functional studies analyzing the ability of human soluble ICAM-1 and human/mouse LFA-1 derived peptides to inhibit cell aggregation and adhesion as well as cell-mediated cytotoxicity in both mouse and human systems. In parallel， the affinity of the interaction between mouse LFA-1-derived peptides and human ICAM-1 was determined by calorimetry assays. According to the results obtained， it seems that human ICAM-1 is able to interact with mouse LFA-1 on intact cells， which should be taking into account when using humanized mice and xenograft models for the study of immune-related processes.
