What is CD74?

CD74, also known as the invariant chain, plays an essential role in antigen presentation for immune response by mediating assembly, or chaperoning, subcellular trafficking of the MHCII complex. CD74 is also involve in the regulation of endosomal trafficking, inducing B-cell differentiation, cell migration and cellular signaling as surface receptor of the pro-inflammatory cytokine macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF). CD74 is up-regulated In several forms of cancer, specifically mucinous lung adenocarcinoma, and is associated with enhanced proliferation and metastatic potential. It is now thought that modulation of CD74 function shows promising, effective amelioration of these diseases.

Detection methods include flow cytometry, coimmunoprecipitation techniques, IHC, Western Blot, ELISA ChIP-seq. Some secondary test methods common to the analysis of CD74 include confocal microscopy and other visualization techniques, protein-protein arrays, and rt-PCR.

Cell Types

• Hematopoietic stem cells
• Langerhans cells
• Epithelial cells
• Adipose cells
• B cells
• Follicular center cells
• Mantle cells
• Activated B lymphocytes
• Antigen Presenting Cells (APCs)
• Dendritic cells
• Macrophages
• Kupffer cells

Reference

1. Schröder B. (2016). The multifaceted roles of the invariant chain CD74--More than just a chaperone. Biochimica et biophysica acta, 1863(6 Pt A), 1269–1281. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbamcr.2016.03.026