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Leukocyte adhesion to the carboxyl-terminal region of fibronectin, a major component of extracellular matrices, involves recognition of the CS-1 site and the Hep II domain. We have previously shown that cultured T and B lymphoid cells constitutively attach via the alpha 4 beta 1 integrin to a 38-kDa fibronectin fragment that contains CS-1 and Hep II, and to a 58-kDa fragment that contains Hep II only. In this report we have studied the adhesion of other hemopoietic cells to the CS-1 and Hep II regions of fibronectin. Cultured monocytic cells and peripheral blood T lymphocytes constitutively bound to the 38-kDa fragment indicating that alpha 4 beta 1 was functional. These cells, however, were unable to bind to the 58-kDa fragment. On lymphoid cells both fragments were shown to bind to very close regions of alpha 4 beta 1 as indicated by the inhibition pattern of mAb to various alpha 4 epitopes, and by the good inhibitory capacity of soluble 38-kDa fragment on cell adhesion to 58-kDa fragment. These results suggested that alpha 4 beta 1 is present on certain cell populations as a partially active form able to recognize the "high affinity" ligand CS-1 but not the "low affinity" ligand Hep II. Binding of monocytic cells and peripheral blood T lymphocytes to the Hep II domain could be induced by several agents: first, long (48-h) and short (20-min) treatment with phorbol esters; second, cell incubation with the divalent cation Mn2+; third, and most effective, cell incubation with the mAb TS2/16, which is directed to the beta 1 integrin subunit. Binding to the 58-kDa fragment in all three cases was completely inhibited by mAb anti-alpha 4, thus confirming the involvement of alpha 4 beta 1 in the recognition of the Hep II domain. No major changes on alpha 4 beta 1 surface expression were observed after these treatments as determined by immunofluorescence analyses. Our results indicate that hemopoietic cells may differentially bind the CS-1 and Hep II ligands in fibronectin depending on the activation state of alpha 4 beta 1, a fact that may be relevant for the migration and function of leukocytes.