Role of integrins in melanocyte attachment and dendricity

Integrins are a family of proteins known to mediate attachment of cells to extracellular matrix materials. The substratum specificity and cation dependence of specific integrin heterodimers have been extensively characterized, and to a lesser degree specialized roles in cell attachment versus dendricity have been defined in some cell types. In the past decade, melanocyte attachment rate and morphology have been found to have strong substratum dependence, suggesting a major role for integrins in these processes. In order to investigate this aspect of pigment cell biology, human newborn melanocytes were subjected to flow cytometry analysis and plated on a variety of substrata under conditions known to promote or block the binding of specific integrin pairs. Melanocyte attachment to laminin and type IV collagen was promoted by Mg2+ and Mn2+ but not by Ca2+, in the range of concentrations examined. However, dendrite outgrowth from melanocytes already attached on laminin or type IV collagen was promoted by Ca2+ to a far greater degree than by Mg2+, and Mn2+ had no effect on dendrite outgrowth. Flow cytometry analysis revealed that melanocytes expressed beta 1, alpha 2, alpha 3, alpha 5, alpha 6 and alpha v integrin subunits as well as the alpha v beta 3 heterodimer. The influence of substratum on the profile of integrin expression was minimal, but alpha 6 and beta 1 integrins were observed by confocal microscopy to be expressed over the entire cell surface, while alpha 2, alpha 5 and alpha v beta 3 integrins localized along dendritic processes or at their tips. In accordance with the implications of these distribution patterns, anti-beta 1 and anti-alpha 6 integrin monoclonal antibodies blocked melanocyte attachment to laminin, while anti-alpha 2, anti-alpha 5 and anti-alpha v beta 3 inhibited dendrite outgrowth but did not block substratum attachment on either laminin or type IV collagen. On the basis of these data and the known characteristics of integrin molecules, we conclude that melanocyte attachment to laminin is mediated primarily by alpha 6 beta 1 integrin in a Ca(2+)-independent, Mg(2+)- and/or Mn(2+)-dependent manner, while dendrite outgrowth on laminin and type IV collagen requires extracellular Ca2+ and is mediated by alpha v beta 3 as well as alpha 2 and alpha 5 integrins.