Cortactin is an actin-binding molecule that regulates various cellular processes requiring actin dynamics. We recently described cortactin-deficient mice and despite its pivotal role for actin remodeling in vitro, these mice are surprisingly healthy. Analyzing cortactin functions in endothelium under inflammatory conditions, we found that cortactin is required for endothelial barrier functions and leukocyte extravasation in vivo. Importantly, these effects were not regulated by defective actin dynamics but instead by a failure to activate the small GTPases Rap1 and RhoG in endothelial cells. Defective RhoG signaling led to reduced ICAM-1 clustering that supported the interaction with leukocytes. These clusters originally seen as rings surrounding adherent leukocytes actually represented in many cases ICAM-1 containing protrusions as they were described before as docking structures. Thus, cortactin is essential for the formation of endothelial docking structures as well as for leukocyte adhesion and extravasation.
Keywords: ICAM-1; Rap1; RhoG; actin; docking structure; leukocyte extravasation; transmigratory cup; vascular permeability.