The beta chemokines CCL4 and CCL5 enhance adhesion of specific CD4+ T cell subsets to human brain endothelial cells

Chemokines are key mediators of inflammation, acting as subset-specific chemoattractants and activators of leukocytes. In the present study we investigated the effects of chemokine concentration gradients on CD4(+) T cell (TC4) adhesion to human brain microvessel endothelial cells (HBMECs) in vitro. CCL4 or CCL5 were placed in a double chamber chemotaxis system beneath confluent resting HBMEC monolayers or cultures co-incubated with TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma to mimic an inflammatory milieu. Chemokines readily diffused across activated HBMEC monolayers while binding to the sub-endothelial regions, establishing a chemotactic and haptotactic gradient. Naive or resting TC4 adhered poorly to resting HBMECs compared to memory or recently activated TC4, but all subsets adhered more readily to cytokine-treated HBMECs. Chemokine gradients (10-100 ng/ml) of both CCL4 and CCL5 significantly enhanced the adhesion of memory and recently activated TC4 to cytokine-treated HBMECs, as much as doubling adhesion in a manner that correlated with chemokine receptor expression. Neither chemokine influenced adhesion to resting HBMEC monolayers nor the adhesion of resting or naive TC4. These findings emphasize the role and importance of CNS-derived beta-chemokines in regulating the traffic of recently activated TC subsets (those previously localized to the CNS in vivo) across cytokine-activated cerebral endothelium in inflammatory diseases.