Follicular dendritic cells (FDC) in the mucosal lymphoid organs, Peyer's patches (PP), display mucosal vascular addressin-cell adhesion molecule-1 (MAdCAM-1). MAdCAM-1 decorates interlacing dendritic cells throughout PP follicles and is accentuated on FDC of the germinal center (GC) light zone and on "junctional" dendritic cells overlapping the B/T border and subepithelial dome region, sites associated with microenvironmental homing decisions. In contrast, MAdCAM-1 is rarely displayed by coronal or junctional FDC in peripheral lymph node follicles and is largely confined to the GC after lymph node immunization. FDC-associated MAdCAM-1 plays a prominent role in lymphocyte adhesion to GC in PP frozen sections and participates significantly in binding to GC in chronically stimulated lymph nodes and spleen, but not to GC in lymph nodes after primary immunization (where binding is dominated by vascular cell adhesion molecule-1). Differential display of MAdCAM-1 by FDC could contribute to the specialization of mucosal vs nonmucosal immune responses.