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Institute
MDSCs are suppressive immune cells with a high relevance in various pathologies including cancer, autoimmunity, and chronic infections. Surface marker expression of MDSCs resembles monocytes and neutrophils which have immunostimulatory functions instead of suppressing T cells. Therefore, finding specific surface markers for MDSCs is important for MDSC research and therapeutic MDSC manipulation. In this study, we analyzed if the integrin VLA-1 has the potential as a novel MDSC marker. VLA-1 was expressed by M-MDSCs but not by G-MDSCs as well as by Teff cells. VLA-1 deficiency did not impact iNOS expression, the distribution of M-MDSC and G-MDSC subsets, and the suppressive capacity of MDSCs towards naïve and Teff cells in vitro. In mice, VLA-1 had no effect on the homing capability of MDSCs to the spleen, which is a major reservoir for MDSCs. Since the splenic red pulp contains collagen IV and VLA-1 binds collagen IV with a high affinity, we found MDSCs and Teff cells in this area as expected. We showed that T cell suppression in the spleen, indicated by reduced T cell recovery and proliferation as well as increased apoptosis and cell death, partially depended on VLA-1 expression by the MDSCs. In a mouse model of multiple sclerosis, MDSC injection prior to disease onset led to a decrease of the disease score, and this effect was significantly reduced when MDSCs were VLA-1 deficient. The expression of Sema7A by Teff cells, a ligand for VLA-1 which is implicated in negative T cell regulation, resulted in a slightly stronger Teff cell suppression by MDSCs compared to Sema7A deficient T cells. Live cell imaging and intravital 2-photon microscopy showed that the interaction time of MDSCs and Teff cells was shorter when MDSCs lacked VLA 1 expression, however VLA-1 expression had no impact on MDSC mobility. Therefore, the VLA-1-dependent interaction of MDSC and Teff cells on collagen IV in the splenic red pulp is implicated MDSC-mediated Teff cell suppression.