Chemotaxis-promoting and adhesion properties of human tonsillar follicular dendritic cell clusters

Lymph follicles are globular and compact due to aggregation of lymphoid cells on follicular dendritic cells (FDC). To probe the mechanisms underlying this accumulation of cells, we analyse here the role played by FDCs in attracting and binding cells. FDCs prepared from human tonsils by mild separation techniques appeared in the form of clusters (FDC clusters), where, via cytoplasmic extensions, they enveloped lymphoid cells. Using Boyden's chambers, we demonstrated that these FDC clusters produced one or more chemoattractants capable of inducing chemotaxis of lymphoid cells. Supernatants of FDC cluster cultures also exerted a chemotaxis-promoting effect. FDC clusters induced true chemotaxis, not merely chemokinesis due to cell activation. They secreted a substance or substances that stuck to the substrate (a cellulose filter) and thus induced haptotaxis. B as well as T cells were attracted, but B cells apparently required the presence of T cells to respond fully to the chemoattractant(s). Subtypes of B cells (IgD(+) and IgD(-)) and T cells (CD4(+), CD8(+), CD57(+) and CD57(-)) were tested and all were attracted. Since purified lymphoid cells did not induce these phenomena, FDCs were suspected to do so. FDCs have been shown to establish contact with lymphoid cells. Here we have determined that CD4(+) T cells adhere in greater number to FDC clusters than do CD8(+) T cells. We thus propose that FDCs specifically contribute to construction of lymph follicles by attracting and determining their cell composition.