Basolateral secretion of kappa light chain in the polarised epithelial cell line, Caco-2

The immunoglobulin kappa light chain is constitutively secreted in non-polarised cells. It is therefore unlikely to display any of the signals thought to be required for the selective delivery of proteins to the apical or basolateral borders of polarised epithelial cells. We have transfected the gene for the kappa light chain into a polarised epithelial cell line (Caco-2) and shown that it is secreted predominantly from the basolateral surface. Metabolically labelled endogenous secretory products show the same polarity and we conclude, therefore, that in Caco-2 cells there is a major intracellular trafficking route to the basolateral border that requires no sorting signal.