CCL19 Induced Responses Are Differentially Regulated by Atypical Chemokine Receptor CRAM and Its Classical Chemokine Receptor CCR7 in B-CLL Cells

Chemokines are known to play an important role in the migration and survival of B-CLL cells. The non-signalling chemokine receptors, including DARC, D6 and CCX-CKR, have recently been shown to be involved in chemokine clearance and activity regulation. The human chemokine receptor CRAM is the most recently identified member of this atypical group. CRAM is expressed on B cells in a maturation-stage dependent manner, and to variable degrees on B-CLL cells. We have recently shown that it competitively binds CCL19 and that this binding is not followed by classical chemokine responses. CCL19 and its signalling receptor CCR7 are centrally involved in B cell localisation and maturation within the secondary lymphoid tissues. CCR7 is also highly expressed on B cells from CLL patients and mediates migration towards its ligands CCL19 and CCL21 which have been shown to be present at higher concentrations in serum of patients with lymphadenopathia compared to patients without. In this study we investigate the influence of CRAM on the CCL19 dependent responses of B-CLL cells and potential correlations to clinical data with a specific focus on lymphadenopathia.

We demonstrate that B cells from patients with B-CLL present high, but variable degrees of CCR7 and CRAM expression. Patients with compared to patients without lymphadenopathia show a higher CRAM expression level whereas the CCR7 expression is not significantly different. In single samples showing extremly high CRAM expression the migration towards CCL19 is reduced compared to patients with lower CRAM expression. These observations confirm results in the B-CLL cell line MEC-1 showing increased migration toward CCL19 when CRAM expression is reduced using CRAM-siRNA. On the other hand, CRAM seems to be a chemokine presenter as we can show that it does not degrade its chemokine ligand but presents it on the surface of polarised cell layers. Thus, we assume that CRAM plays a role for cell migration, possibly transmigration and cell localisation within lymph nodes of B-CLL cells.

We show that CRAM can act as an integrator of different recruitment and activation factors. It is associated to CCR7 driven recruitment of B cells by regulating CCL19 availability. Expression of CRAM differs in B cell malignancies for which CCL19 and CCL21 have already been shown to be implicated in lymphadenopathia. We therefore suggest that CRAM is an additional player in the localisation and differentiation/maturation processes of malignant B cells of B-CLL patients.

No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.