Many tumor types over-express collagens, what correlates with enhanced metastatic capacity and unfavorable clinical outcome. This is generally explained by the importance of collagens in creating a microenvironment that supports tumor cell survival and enhances cell migration. Importantly, collagens act as ligands for the inhibitory receptor LAIR-1, which inhibits the function of multiple types of immune cells. Here we propose a new role for tumor expressed collagens and show that these structural proteins can be exploited by tumor cells to inhibit immune responses through an interaction with LAIR-1. We show that both LAIR-1-Fc fusion proteins and LAIR-1 expressing cells bind to transmembrane collagens expressed by tumor cells. Interference with collagen expression by specific knock-down of prolyl 4-hydroxylase diminishes LAIR-1 binding to tumor cells, demonstrating the specificity of the interaction. Consistently, both transmembrane collagens and extracellular collagens produced by multiple tumor cell types can activate LAIR-1. Furthermore, overexpression of collagen XVII on target cells results in diminished NK cell cytotoxic activity. Thus tumor-expressed collagens can bind and trigger immune inhibitory signaling via LAIR-1, suggesting that collagens indeed may affect tumor immune evasion.
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