WNK1 kinase balances T cell adhesion versus migration in vivo

Nat Immunol. 2016 Sep;17(9):1075-83. doi: 10.1038/ni.3495.

Robert Köchl ¹, Flavian Thelen ², Lesley Vanes ¹, Tiago F Brazão ¹, Kathryn Fountain ¹, Jian Xie ³, Chou-Long Huang ³, Ruth Lyck ², Jens V Stein ², Victor L J Tybulewicz ¹ ⁴

Affiliations

1 The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK.
2 Theodor Kocher Institute, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
3 University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA.
4 Department of Medicine, Imperial College, London, UK.

PMID: 27400149 DOI: 10.1038/ni.3495

Abstract

Adhesion and migration of T cells are controlled by chemokines and by adhesion molecules, especially integrins, and have critical roles in the normal physiological function of T lymphocytes. Using an RNA-mediated interference screen, we identified the WNK1 kinase as a regulator of both integrin-mediated adhesion and T cell migration. We found that WNK1 is a negative regulator of integrin-mediated adhesion, whereas it acts as a positive regulator of migration via the kinases OXSR1 and STK39 and the ion co-transporter SLC12A2. WNK1-deficient T cells home less efficiently to lymphoid organs and migrate more slowly through them. Our results reveal that a pathway previously known only to regulate salt homeostasis in the kidney functions to balance T cell adhesion and migration.

Name
Email *

	Sorry, but the email address you supplied was invalid.