scholarly journals In Vitro Comparison of Multinucleated Giant Cell Formation from Human Umbilical Cord and Adult Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Phagocytes

1993 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karla Gerberding ◽  
Mervin C Yoder
2000 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 3169-3176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simonetta Falzoni ◽  
Paola Chiozzi ◽  
Davide Ferrari ◽  
Gary Buell ◽  
Francesco Di Virgilio

Cell fusion is a central phenomenon during the immune response that leads to formation of large elements called multinucleated giant cells (MGCs) of common occurrence at sites of granulomatous inflammation. We have previously reported on the involvement in this event of a novel receptor expressed to high level by mononuclear phagocytes, the purinergic P2X7receptor. Herein, we show that blockade of this receptor by a specific monoclonal antibody prevents fusion in vitro. In contrast, cell fusion is stimulated by addition of enzymes that destroy extracellular ATP (i.e., apyrase or hexokinase). Experiments performed with phagocytes selected for high (P2X7hyper) or low (P2X7hypo) P2X7expression show that fusion only occurs between P2X7hyper/P2X7hyper and not between P2X7hyper/P2X7hypo or P2X7hypo/P2X7hypo. During MGCs formation we detected activation of caspase 3, an enzyme that is powerfully stimulated by P2X7. Finally, we observed that during MGCs formation, the P2X7receptor is preferentially localized at sites of cell-to-cell contact. These findings support the hypothesis originally put forward by our group that the P2X7receptor participates in multinucleated giant cell formation.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document