title: Enumeration of lymphokine mRNA-containing cells in vivo in a murine graft-versus-host reaction using the PCR.
abstract: A method of enumerating lymphokine mRNA-containing cells in vivo was developed by combining limiting dilution analysis with PCR amplification of cDNA. Single-hit kinetics revealed that the PCR-limiting dilution analysis could detect a single positive cell among greater than 40,000 negative cells. With this method, spleens and lymph nodes of mice undergoing an acute allogeneic graft-versus-host reaction were found to contain lymphokine mRNA-expressing cells at frequencies of 3% for interferon gamma, 0.05% for granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor, 0.002% for interleukin 3, and 0.03% for interleukin 4; these frequencies were 20- to 175-fold higher than in lymphoid tissues of normal mice. In contrast to their low frequencies of lymphokine mRNA-containing cells in vivo, graft-versus-host reaction populations restimulated in vitro for 24 hr with anti-CD3 antibody yielded frequencies ranging from 3% for interleukin 4 to nearly 70% for interferon gamma. Furthermore, lymphokine transcripts were also detected in single micromanipulated cells from these populations. Because frequencies of anti-CD3-inducible lymphokine mRNA-containing cells in normal mice were only 0.03-1%, it was concluded that lymphoid tissues of graft-versus-host reaction mice contained high frequencies of cells that had been primed for lymphokine synthesis. Only a small fraction of these cells, however, expressed lymphokine mRNAs at a given time point in vivo.
authors.affiliation: Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: A B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Troutt
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kelso
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D006087:Graft vs Host Reaction; D016178:Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor / Q000235:genetics; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000235:genetics; D007377:Interleukin-3 / Q000235:genetics; D015847:Interleukin-4 / Q000235:genetics; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000276:immunology; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D008222:Lymphokines / Q000235:genetics*; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008811:Mice, Inbred DBA; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics*; D013154:Spleen / Q000276:immunology; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology* / Q000637:transplantation*
chemical_list: D007377:Interleukin-3; D008222:Lymphokines; D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D015847:Interleukin-4; D007371:Interferon-gamma; D016178:Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor