Mice Lacking Expression of Secondary Lymphoid Organ Chemokine Have Defects in Lymphocyte Homing and Dendritic Cell Localization

Gunn, Michael D.; Kyuwa, Shigeru; Tam, Carmen; Kakiuchi, Terutaka; Matsuzawa, Akio; Williams, Lewis T.; Nakano, Hideki

In this study, we cannot fully distinguish the biological effects of SLC from those of ELC. Because SLC and ELC signal through the same receptor, some of their functions may overlap. plt mice express no detectable SLC mRNA while ELC mRNA expression is only partially reduced ( Figs. 1 and 7) , and the abnormalities observed in plt mice are likely to be due to the sum of these defects. Still, some conclusions can be drawn from our results. The near-total loss of naive T cell homing in plt mice suggests an absolute requirement for SLC and the existence of at least one function that cannot be performed by ELC. In contrast, plt mice appear to exhibit only a partial defect in DC migration, suggesting that SLC and ELC may both contribute to this process and that some DCs reach the T cell zone of plt mice in response to low levels of ELC.