Figure 3.
The anti–integrin α6 antibody inhibits homing of progenitors to BM, but does not enhance inhibition of homing mediated by the integrin α4 antibody. BM cells were incubated with function-blocking antibodies against integrin α6 (α6), integrin α4 (α4), both against integrins α6 and α4 (α6 + α4) or rat IgG2a control antibody (rIgG), and injected into lethally irradiated recipient mice. Three hours after injection, cells from BM, blood, and spleen were collected for CFU-GM assay. Data are pooled from 2 to 4 independent experiments. (A) The anti–integrin α6 antibody inhibited homing of CFU-GMs into BM, but not into spleen, and increased the number of CFU-GMs in blood. (B) The anti–integrin α4 antibody inhibited homing of CFU-GMs into BM. Incubation with both antibodies against integrin α6 and α4 chains did not further inhibit CFU-GM homing but resulted in retention of progenitors in blood. *P < .05; **P < .01; and ***P < .001, compared with results obtained with rIgG control antibody. ##P < .01 compared with results obtained with anti–integrin α4 antibody. (C) Incubation of BM cells with anti–integrin α6, anti–integrin α4, both antibodies, or control antibody did not affect growth of CFU-GMs, compared with cells not incubated with antibodies (no ab). The horizontal bars show mean values.