p56lck, LFA-1 and PI3K but not SHP-2 interact with GM1- or GM3-enriched microdomains in a CD4–p56lck association-dependent manner

Abstract

We previously showed that the association of CD4 and GM3 ganglioside induced by CD4 ligand binding was required for the down-regulation of adhesion and that aggregation of ganglioside-enriched domains was accompanied by transient co-localization of LFA-1 (lymphocyte function-associated antigen-1), PI3K (phosphoinositide 3-kinase) and CD4. We also showed that these proteins co-localized with the GM1 ganglioside that partially co-localized with GM3 in these domains. In the present study, we show that CD4–p56lck association in CD4 signalling is required for the redistribution of p56lck, PI3K and LFA-1 in ganglioside-enriched domains, since ganglioside aggregation and recruitment of these proteins were not observed in a T-cell line (A201) expressing the mutant form of CD4 that does not bind p56lck. In addition, we show that although these proteins associated in different ways with GM1 and GM3, all of the associations were dependent on CD4–p56lck association. Gangliosides could associate with these proteins that differ in affinity binding and could be modified following CD4 signalling. Our results suggest that through these associations, gangliosides transiently sequestrate these proteins and consequently inhibit LFA-1-dependent adhesion. Furthermore, while structural diversity of gangliosides may allow association with distinct proteins, we show that the tyrosine phosphatase SHP-2 (Src homology 2 domain-containing protein tyrosine phosphatase 2), also required for the down-regulation of LFA-1-dependent adhesion, transiently and partially co-localized with PI3K and p56lck in detergent-insoluble membranes without association with GM1 or GM3. We propose that CD4 ligation and binding with p56lck and their interaction with GM3 and/or GM1 gangliosides induce recruitment of distinct proteins important for CD4 signalling to form a multimolecular signalling complex.