Interferon-gamma increases susceptibility of murine pancreatic beta cells to lysis by allogeneic cytotoxic T lymphocytes

The selective loss of insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells which occurs in IDDM has been postulated to result from lysis by beta cell-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). CTL typically recognise antigen in the context of MHC class I molecules, which are normally present at low levels on beta cells. However, hyperexpression of class I antigens on islet cells has been observed in the early stages of beta cell destruction in IDDM. Since interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) is known to increase class I expression on a number of cell types, we have investigated the responses of murine beta cells to this cytokine under various conditions. Two color immunostaining followed by FACS analysis showed that on average, only 14.9 +/- 3.1% of cultured beta cells were class I positive. However, a majority of beta cells could be induced to express class I after 24 hours of IFN-gamma treatment, and maximal induction (80-90% positive) occurred after 48 hours. Importantly, increased class I expression on beta cells could be achieved with very low concentrations of IFN-gamma (1-10 U/ml). Expression of class II MHC was never detected under any of the conditions employed to up-regulate class I. Interestingly, although islet cells were only moderately susceptible to lysis by allospecific CTL, this susceptibility was markedly enhanced by prior exposure of the islets to IFN-gamma. Taken together, these results suggest that beta cells are extremely susceptible to up-regulation of class I MHC molecules by IFN-gamma, and that this property may render these cells particularly susceptible to lysis by autologous class I-restricted CTL. Since enhanced expression of class I frequently accompanies inflammatory responses and viral infections, this property of beta cells may account in part for their selective destruction in IDDM.     

Infection of B lymphocytes by the human immunodeficiency virus and their susceptibility to cytotoxic cells

The T4 molecule (CD4) is an important component of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) receptor. As yet, no other component has been demonstrated. We report here that two cell lines, a B lymphoblastoid cell line (Gupta) and a glial cell line (HEB) derived from human embryonal brain tissue, are productively infectable with two distinct isolates of HIV as judged by electron microscopy and immunological and virological studies. These two cell lines do not display detectable surface CD4 glycoprotein. However, using S1 nuclease analysis, we have found that both cell lines do express low levels of CD4 mRNA. Neither of them produced syncytia formation upon HIV infection, a recognized feature of HIV-infected cells strongly expressing the CD4 glycoprotein. It is conceivable that the CD4 mRNA is translated, resulting in meager surface expression of CD4 molecules undetectable by conventional techniques. Therefore, infection with HIV may be one of the most sensitive methods of demonstrating low levels of CD4 expression by human cells. Furthermore, HIV-infected Gupta cells have here been shown to be more susceptible to the lytic activity of natural killer (NK) cells than their uninfected counterparts. These phenomena may be important for pathogenesis of HIV-associated disorders.     

Expression of perforin in murine natural killer cells and cytotoxic T lymphocytes in vivo.

We have previously detected perforin expression in a subpopulation of asialo GM1+ natural killer (NK) cells and CD8+ T lymphocytes in murine spleen cells by immunocytochemical staining with an anti-perforin monoclonal antibody. In the present study, more detailed analyses of perforin expression in murine cytotoxic lymphocyte subpopulations were performed. The expression of perforin in asialo GM1+ spleen cells was predominantly confined to the NK1.1+ subset, where all NK activity also resided. Perforin expression was also studied on alloreactive cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) induced in vivo. The cells expressing perforin in peritoneal exudate lymphocytes predominantly resided in the CD8+ T cell subpopulation co-expressing asialo GM1 where an allospecific CTL activity also resided. Furthermore, the percentage of perforin-positive cells in this population was greatly reduced after stimulation with anti-CD3 or anti-T cell receptors antibodies, which induce serine esterase release from the cytoplasmic granules. These findings highly suggest that perforin is involved in in vivo NK cell- and CTL-mediated cytolysis.     

Solid tumor-derived target cell susceptibility to macrophages and natural killer/natural cytotoxic cells in the rat

Cytotoxic capacity of rat macrophages (Mø) and natural killer (NK)/natural cytotoxic cells (NC) against adherent growing, solid tumor-derived target cells was evaluated, modulating the activation status of effector cells and growth conditions of target cells.Testing a panel of target cells, cytotoxicity of NK/NC and Mø was strikingly correlated so that besides of target-cell binding structures basic lysability seems to be of influence with respect to cytotoxicity rates. Varying the in vivo growth conditions of target cells altered their lysability by Mø and NK/NC cells in the sense that ascitic versus subcutaneously (sc) grown tumors were more resistant to lysis. On the other hand, in vitro culturing did not influence susceptibility for Mø, but with some tumor lines increased lysis by NK/NC cells was observed.In the rat, the activation status of Mø and NC was not age-dependent, and NK cell activity only declined slowly with age. But cytotoxic potential of Mø obviously presents a strain characteristic, different from NK/NC cell activity, only the latter two correlating in different rat strains. Experiments to augment natural cytotoxic capacity revealed that application of Corynebacterium parvum (CP) activated Mø and NK/NC cells, while sc tumor implantation only resulted in increased NK/NC cell cytotoxicity, leaving Mø activity unaltered.     

Laminin inhibits the recognition of tumor target cells by murine natural killer (NK) and natural cytotoxic (NC) lymphocytes.

Tumor cells sensitive to lysis by murine natural killer (NK) or natural cytotoxic (NC) cells were shown to bind laminin. They bound 125I-labeled laminin in a time- and concentration-dependent manner, and binding of the radioactive laminin was inhibited by excess cold laminin. In the presence of laminin, cell-cell aggregation occurred. Murine tumor cells not sensitive to NK/NC-mediated killing bound much less laminin, and laminin did not induce aggregation of these cells. The addition of exogenous laminin to NK or NC cytotoxicity assays reduced target lysis in a dose-related manner. Reduction of lysis was due to an inability of NK/NC cells to bind to the targets. Target cells pretreated with laminin were reduced in their ability to cold-target compete for NK-mediated lysis of untreated target cells. These effects were unique to laminin. The control proteins (fibronectin and thyroglobulin) had no effect on NK activity. Finally, inhibition of cytolytic activity by laminin appeared to be specific for NK/NC cells. Laminin had no effect on cytolysis mediated by alloimmune cytotoxic T lymphocytes regardless of whether the targets did or did not bind laminin.     

Differential sulphation of chondroitins in murine T and B lymphocytes and lymphoma cells

Splenic B and T lymphocytes metabolically labelled in vitro with [³⁵S]-H₂SO₄ show differential sulphation of chondroitin sulphate, the major sulphated glycosaminoglycan in both cell-retained and secreted fractions. In B cells, 6-O-sulphation is more abundant than 4-O-sulphation, whereas in T cells sulphation occurs predominantly in the 4-O-position. The murine lymphoma lines AKTB-1b and EL-4, of B and T origin respectively, show even more marked differences. AKTB-1b follows the pattern of normal B cells, whilst in EL-4 only chondroitin 4-sulphate is synthesized.     

Production of interferon and tumour necrosis factor by cloned human natural cytotoxic lymphocytes and T cells.

Cell lines and clones, derived from natural killer (NK) cell-enriched (B73.1+) peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) from several human donors, that expressed distinct surface phenotypes and were cytolytically active against K562 target cells were tested for their capacity to produce interferon (IFN) and tumour necrosis factor (TNF), IFN and TNF were measured firstly in biological assays and secondly in specific immunoassays for alpha-IFN, gamma-IFN and tumour necrosis factor (TNF alpha). It was found that the majority of NK-derived lines and clones were highly cytotoxic towards K562, but generally produced relatively low or undetectable levels of gamma-IFN and TNF alpha following stimulation with phytohaemagglutinin. No alpha-IFN was detected in supernatants from these cells. In comparison, cell lines and clones, derived from T lymphocyte (B73.1-) enriched PBL from the same donors were poorly cytotoxic towards K562, but generally produced higher levels of gamma-IFN and TNF than NK-derived cells. Thus, neither gamma-IFN nor TNF production were shown to correlate well with the capacity of NK-derived or T cell clones to effect cytotoxic action towards K562 in vitro. These results suggest that the co-production of gamma-IFN and TNF is not indicative of cytotoxic potential.     

Differential variations of sensitivities of TNP-modified lymphoma cells to lysis by cytotoxic lymphocytes and by antibodies

Cultured RDM4 cells were modified with 1 mM trinitrobenzene sulphonate (TNBS) and assayed for lysis by either in vitro generated cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTL) or complement-mediated humoral immunity. It was observed that cells harvested from the exponentially growing phase culture (as assessed by an important incorporation of thymidine) were more sensitive to CTL, but less sensitive to humoral immunity, than cells harvested from resting phase culture. Radiolabelled [¹⁴C]TNBS permitted to show that exponentially growing cells bound about 5 times less TNBS than cells at the resting phase. It is therefore concluded that the efficiency of the CTL on TNP-modified cells is not proportional to the density of TNP-groups on the targets, and that CTL on the one hand, and complement-mediated humoral immunity on the other hand, must have very different cell surface requirements to be able to lyze the targets.     

Dexamethasone induces apoptosis in mouse natural killer cells and cytotoxic T lymphocytes.

Glucocorticoid hormones (GCH) induce apoptotic cell death in immature thymocytes through an active mechanism, characterized by extensive DNA fragmentation into oligonucleosomal subunits. This requires macromolecular synthesis and is inhibited by protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitors, interleukin-4 (IL-4) and heat shock (hs). We performed experiments to analyse the possible effect of GCH on more differentiated lymphocytes, i.e. mouse natural killer (NK) cells and CD8+ alloreactive cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). The results show that dexamethasone (DEX) induces DNA fragmentation and cell death in NK cells and CTL in vitro. In both NK cells and CTL, DEX-induced apoptosis is inhibited by IL-2 and IL-4 but, unlike that induced in thymocytes, is augmented by mRNA and protein synthesis inhibitors, PKC inhibitors and HS.     

Enrichment by counterpart centrifugal elutriation of human lymphocytes cytotoxic to human tumour cells.

The enriched fractions of cytotoxic cells responsible for natural killer (NK) activity against both human sarcoma and neuroblastoma (LA-N2) cell lines were readily obtained by countercurrent centrifugal elutriation (CCE). The NK cells were obtained in the larger lymphocyte fractions (fraction 6 +/- 1), having a mean cell volume of 180 u3. The cytotoxic-enriched fraction contained 51% large lymphocytes having cytoplasmic granules. On the other hand, monocytes were purified to greater than 90% and isolated in another fraction (final fraction) and these cells had the lowest NK activity against both human tumour cell lines. However, compared with the lymphocyte fractions, small and large monocytes displayed greater antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) activity against human B erythrocytes. These results indicate that NK found to have activity against both tumour cells lines were larger lymphocytes, not small monocytes. Thus, countercurrent centrifugal elutriation (CCE) can provide a sensitive method to obtain enriched fractions of large lymphocytes contained tumoricidal activity against human sarcoma and neuroblastoma cell lines.     

人工合成HLA衍生肽对CTL和NK细胞毒功能的影响

目的探讨合成HLA衍生肽对CTL和NK细胞毒功能的影响.方法人工固相合成2种HLA衍生肽(P1HLA-B*0701.75-84和P2HLA-B*2702.75-84),分别用MTT法和LDH释放法,在体外观察HLA衍生肽对CTL和NK细胞毒功能的影响及其等位基因特异性.结果P2可显著抑制CTL的细胞毒效应(P＜0.01),这种抑制作用不具有等位基因特异性,而对NK的细胞毒功能则没有明显影响.结论合成HLA肽对CTL和NK细胞毒功能的影响只与HLA肽的序列有关,P2即HLA-B*2702.75-84,可抑制CTL的细胞毒功能.     

Role of cytotoxic T lymphocytes in murine cytomegalovirus infection

Cell-mediated immunity is important in host control of CMV infection. A chromium release microcytoxicity assay was used to evaluate the role of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) in murine CMV infection. Within a few days after intranasal inoculation virus was detected in cultures of buffy-coat, spleens, anterior cervical lymph nodes and salivary glands. CTL were first detected on day 5 post-infection in spleen and peripheral blood, and on day 6 in anterior cervical nodes. The course of the CTL response approximated to that of virus titres during the acute phase of infection in the spleen and blood. The findings indicate that CTL are distributed to infected tissues and appear to be important during the acute, viraemic phase of infection.     

Evasion of cytotoxic T lymphocytes by murine cytomegalovirus

Murine cytomegalovirus causes lifelong infections with little pathology in normal host animals. Control of viral replication and prevention of pathology depend on both innate and adaptive immune mechanisms, and cytolytic T lymphocytes play a key role in this process. The virus encodes a number of genes which alter the normal assembly of class I major histocompatability complex proteins, and thus interfere with the ability of infected cells to present antigen to CD8(+)T cells. This review will examine what is known about these viral genes, and present some unanswered questions regarding the role of CTL evasion in the viral infectious cycle.     

Proliferative and cytotoxic response of human natural killer cells exposed to transporter associated with antigen-processing-deficient cells

In transporter associated with antigen-processing (TAP)-deficient patients affected by a severe downmodulation of human leucocyte antigen class I (HLA-I) molecules, natural killer (NK) cells have an increased expression of the inhibitory receptor CD94/NKG2A. Focusing our attention on NK cells, we have investigated the phenotype, function and proliferative response of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) derived from healthy donors after coculturing with TAP (T2)- or HLA-I-deficient (721.221) cell lines and their related HLA-I-expressing transfectants (T3 and DT360, respectively). After 4 days, NK cells cocultured with T2 cells had a threefold increased CD94 expression compared to NK cells cocultured with T3. This increase was due to proliferation of the CD56brightCD94bright subset. In contrast, expression of other inhibitory receptors [killer cell immunoglobulin (Ig)-like receptors] was variable during time and was not related to HLA-I molecules expressed by stimulating cells. Similar results were obtained using HLA-I-deficient cells (721.221). The PBLs cocultured for 4 days with T2 cells displayed enhanced cytotoxic responses. The results suggest that CD56brightCD94bright NK cells are induced to proliferate and kill in response to a TAP-deficient environment. The changes seen in the NK-cell compartment were partially contributed by T lymphocytes present in the coculture. These data could explain the increased CD94 expression and autoimmune manifestations observed in TAP-deficient patients.     

Targeting cytotoxic T cells to antigen-specific B lymphocytes

A recent development in immunomanipulation involves the targeting of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) to cell-bound antigens using bispecific antibodies. These antibodies have been engineered such that specificity is directed against the T cell receptor (TCR) or TCR-associated T3 molecules, as well as against the chosen antigen. The present study was aimed to force interactions between T and B cells by bridging their receptors. F23.1 antibodies, which are specific for gene products of the TCR V beta 8 gene family, were conjugated with TNP (2,4,6-trinitrophenyl) and this construct was used to bridge the receptors of V beta 8+ T cells with the receptors of TNP-specific B cells. The bridging was demonstrated by direct killing of both a TNP-specific B hybridoma and of blast cells from mice transgenic for mu, kappa of the TNP-specific antibody Sp6. Further, F23.1-TNP constructs in conjunction with V beta 8+ CTL were shown to specifically deplete Ig-secreting B cells from Sp6 transgenic mice. Conjugates of TCR-specific antibodies and antigen are theoretically useful in vivo to either deplete or expand B cells of a given specificity by coupling their receptors to the TCR of CTL or T helper cells, respectively.     

Inhibition of the activity of cytotoxic murine T lymphocytes by antibodies to idiotypic determinants

The nature of the receptors on the surface of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL), which enable these cells to recognize antigens on allogeneic targets, is still a matter of controversy. In the present study various mouse alloantisera were tested for their capacity to inhibit, in the absence of complement, the cytotoxic activity of sensitized peritoneal T lymphocytes. The only antiserum which, even after heat inactivation, consistently inhibited cytotoxic T lymphocytes was an antiserum elicited in (C3H X C57B1/6)F1 mice by immunization with AKR/Cum thymus cells. The serum inhibited the cytotoxic reaction of either AKR/J or AKR/Cum CTL on EL-4 target cells but had no inhibitory activity on the cytotoxic reaction of AKR/J cells against P-815 target cells. Thus the inhibitory activity of the serum could not be attributed to antibodies against Ly-3 determinants present in the serum. This conclusion was strengthened by the finding that the inhibitory activity of the serum could be removed by absorption, not only with AKR/J thymus cells but also with AKR/J bone-marrow cells, a procedure which did not affect the titre of Ly-3 antibodies. The serum failed to exert any inhibition on cytotoxic T lymphocytes of BALB/c and C3H mice reacting against EL-4 target cells, indicating that the inhibitory activity of the antiserum did not result from contamination by antibodies against C57B1 antigenic determinants. It was concluded that the inhibitory activity of the antiserum resulted from the presence of antibodies against idiotypic determinants expressed on AKR/Cum thymus cells reacting against the hybrid hosts. It seems, therefore, that idiotypic determinants expressed on the surface of cytotoxic T lymphocytes may be directly involved in their cytotoxic activity.     

Phagocytosis of murine lymphoma cells by macrophages. II. Differences between opsonic and cytotoxic activity of mice immunized with lymphoma cells

Primary allogeneic antiserum raised in C57B1 mice directed against a DBA/2 lymphoma, L5178Y, was found to contain at least two types of opsonic activity associated with the γ-globulin fraction of the antiserum. One was found at a low level corresponding to cytotoxic activity, binding strongly to L5178Y cells and resistant to treatment with mercaptoethanol. The other, which accounted for most of the opsonic activity, was relatively non-specific for L5178Y cells, was easily eluted from the cells, was not associated with cytotoxicity and was sensitive to mercaptoethanol treatment. Two types of opsonic activity were also found in allogeneic antiserum against the CBA/2 lymphoma, TLX5. Both types of lymphoma antisera opsonized sheep red cells, but anti-sheep red cell serum was highly specific, exhibiting no degree of opsonic cross-reactivity with either type of lymphoma cell.