Lymphocyte homing receptor
[2] These diverse tissue-specific adhesion molecules on lymphocytes (homing receptors) and on endothelial cells (vascular addressins) contribute to the development of specialized immune responses.[3] The process of lymphocyte homing is deliberate, mediated by lymphocyte-endothelial recognition mechanisms that enable antigen-specific immune responses.[2] Recently, lymphocyte homing has become a topic of interest for investigation of treatments for multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes mellitus, leukemia, and psoriasis.[2] Lymphocyte homing occurs in four steps leading to extravasation into target tissue; Rolling, activation, activation-dependent “arrest”, and diapedesis.[5] Mediated by lymphocyte receptors and vascular ligand interactions, “tethering” is a reversible linkage that leads to either rolling along the vessel wall or transient immediate arrest.