CD44 is a widely expressed cell adhesion molecule that binds to the extracellular matrix component, hyaluronan. However, this interaction is not constitutive in most immune cells at steady state, as the ability of CD44 to engage hyaluronan is highly regulated. While activated T cells and macrophages gain the ability to bind hyaluronan by CD44, the status in other immune cells is less studied. Here we found a percentage of murine eosinophils, natural killer and natural killer T cells were capable of interacting with hyaluronan at steady state. To further investigate the consequences of hyaluronan binding by CD44 in the hematopoietic system, point mutations of CD44 that either cannot bind hyaluronan (LOF-CD44) or have an increased affinity for hyaluronan (GOF-CD44) were expressed in CD44-deficient bone marrow. Competitive bone marrow reconstitution of irradiated mice revealed an early preference for GOF-CD44 over WT-CD44 expressing cells, and for WT-CD44 over LOF-CD44 expressing cells, in the hematopoietic progenitor cell compartment. The advantage of the hyaluronan-binding cells was observed in the hematopoietic stem and progenitor populations, and was maintained throughout the immune system. Hematopoietic stem cells bound minimal hyaluronan at steady state, and this was increased when the cells were induced to proliferate whereas multipotent progenitors had an increased ability to bind hyaluronan at steady state. In vitro, the addition of hyaluronan promoted their proliferation. Thus, proliferating hematopoietic progenitors bind hyaluronan, and hyaluronan binding cells have a striking competitive advantage in bone marrow engraftment.

Expansion and death of effector CD8 T cells are regulated to limit immunopathology and cells that escape contraction go on to generate immunological memory. CD44, a receptor for the extracellular matrix component hyaluronan, is a marker of activated and memory T cells. Here, we show with a murine model that the increase in CD44 expression and hyaluronan binding induced upon CD8 T cell activation was proportional to the strength of TCR engagement, thereby identifying the most strongly activated T cells. When CD44 and CD44 OT-I CD8 T cells were adoptively transferred into mice challenged with Listeria-OVA, there was a slight increase in the percentage of CD44 cells at the effector site. However, CD44 cells were out-competed by CD44 cells after the contraction phase in the lymphoid tissues, and the CD44 cells preferentially formed more memory cells. The hyaluronan-binding CD44 CD8 effector T cells showed increased pAkt expression, higher glucose uptake, and were more susceptible to cell death during the contraction phase compared to non-binding CD44 and CD44 OT-I CD8 T cells, suggesting that CD44 and its engagement with hyaluronan skews CD8 T cells toward a terminal effector differentiation state that reduces their ability to form memory cells.