Cloning of murine and rat vascular cell adhesion molecule-1

Vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM1) is a member of the immunoglobulin (Ig) superfamily which interacts with the integrin very late antigen 4 (VLA4). We have cloned the cDNAs for both murine and rat VCAM1 from endotoxin-treated lung libraries. Both sequences encode proteins with seven extracellular Ig-like domains, which show 75.9% and 76.9% identity, respectively, with human VCAM1. Both murine and human cell lines show VLA4-dependent binding to COS cells transiently expressing murine and rat VCAM1. Two mAbs, M-K/1 and M-K/2, which recognize an antigen on murine bone marrow stromal cell lines, bind to murine VCAM1 expressed in COS cells and block VCAM1-dependent adhesion, confirming that these mAbs recognize murine VCAM1.