Cultured microvascular endothelial cells derived from the bovine corpus luteum possess NCAM-140

Previously, five phenotypically different, stable types of
microvascular endothelial cells (MVE) were isolated from the bovine
corpus and cultured successfully. We found that three out of these
five types of MVE express the neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM).
As shown by immunocytochemistry, weak NCAM immunoreactivity
occurred mainly in the perinuclear area of cell type 1. Monolayers
of types 2 and 5 revealed heavy NCAM immunoreactivity, which was
localized predominantly at the lateral cell surface outlining the
contact zones of adjacent cells. In contrast, cell types 3 and 4
were not NCAM immunoreactive. Western blot analyses substantiated
these results: While cell type 1 showed a weak immunoreactive band,
cell types 2 and 5 displayed strong NCAM-immunoreactive bands of a
molecular weight of approximately 140 kDa (NCAM-140), which was
absent in cell types 3 and 4. These results reveal for the first
time that NCAM can be expressed by cultured MVE and may serve in
mediating endothelial cell contacts. Since luteal cells also
express NCAM-140, this adhesion molecule could in addition be
involved in the interactions of luteal cells with MVE.