Lipid rafts facilitate the interaction of PECAM-1 with the glycoprotein VI-FcR gamma-chain complex in human platelets

Glycoprotein (GP) VI, the main signaling receptor for collagen on platelets, is expressed in complex with the FcR gamma-chain. The latter contains an immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motif, which becomes phosphorylated, initiating a signaling cascade leading to the rapid activation and aggregation of platelets. Previous studies have shown that signaling by immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motif-containing receptors is counteracted by signals from receptors with immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibitory motifs. Here we show, by immunoprecipitation, that the GPVI-FcR gamma-chain complex associates with the immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibitory motif-containing receptor, PECAM-1. In platelets stimulated with collagen-related peptide (CRP-XL), tyrosine phosphorylation of PECAM-1 precedes that of the FcR gamma-chain, implying direct regulation of the former. The GPVI-FcR gamma-chain complex and PECAM-1 were present in both lipid raft and soluble fractions in human platelets; this distribution was unaltered by activation with CRP-XL. Their association occurred in lipid rafts and was lost after lipid raft depletion using methyl-beta-cyclodextrin. We propose that lipid raft clustering facilitates the interaction of PECAM-1 with the GPVI-FcR gamma-chain complex, leading to the down-regulation of the latter.