Regulation of CXCR1, CXCR2 and CXCR4 in Human Neutrophils: Potential Role in the Release from the Bone Marrow, Clearance of Senescent Cells, and Cell Function at Sites of Inflammation.

In the mouse model, it has been shown that the interleukin-8 (IL-8) receptor CXCR2 is involved in the release of mature neutrophils from the bone marrow into the circulation. When neutrophils age, upregulation of CXCR4 and downmodulation of CXCR2 result in homing and subsequent sequestration of senescent cells in the bone marrow. In our study, we observed a similar time-dependent (starting at 3 hrs., maximum at 12–18 hrs.) downregulation of CXCR2 in human neutrophils during aging in ex vivo culture, while expression of the second IL-8 receptor CXCR1, which is mainly responsible for the IL-8-induced chemotaxis, was unchanged. Furthermore, strong upregulation of CXCR4 was noted on the cell surface which could not solely be attributed to re-expression of internalized, intracellular receptors, as an increased amount of CXCR4 mRNA was detected by Northern blot analysis in these cells. The increase in CXCR4 expression was not influenced by inflammatory cytokines such as TNF and IL-1, as well as by IL-8 or G-CSF. Accordingly, SDF-1-induced transendothelial migration of aged neutrophils was 6-fold increased and even exceeded migration in response to IL-8. We conclude that also in human neutrophils, loss of CXCR2 and gain of CXCR4 expression on the cell surface may favor homing and sequestration of senescent cells in the bone marrow. At sites of inflammation however, retained expression of CXCR1 and increased expression of CXCR4 still allow a response of aged, pre-apoptotic neutrophils to the chemotactic mediators IL-8 and SDF-1, as the latter is not only released in the bone marrow, but also at sites of tissue damage and necrosis.