P21589

CD73 also konwn as NT5E is a plasma membrane protein that catalyzes the conversion of extracellular nucleotides to membrane-permeable nucleosides. CD73 exists as a dimer of two identical subunits that depends on GPI to link with the external face of the plasma membrane. Similar to other GPI-anchored proteins, CD73 mediates co-stimulatory signals in T cell activation. CD73 has few structural variants, yet elicits diverse biological function through differential regulation in endothelial cells (EC), subpopulations of B and T cells, germinal center follicular dendritic cells and on thymic medullary reticular fibroblasts. IgG mediated neutralization of CD73 interferes with lymphocyte adhesion to EC, and blocks aggregation of germinal center B cells and follicular dendritic cells.