Neonatal mouse CD4+ mature thymocytes show responsiveness to interleukin 2 and interleukin 7: growth in vitro of negatively selected V beta 6- and V beta 11-expressing CD4+ cells from (C57BL/6 x DBA/2)F1 mice.
By three colour flow microfluorimetry, we have recently shown that neonatal mouse CD4 single positive thymocytes are a population of proliferating cells. Furthermore, analysis of CD4+ thymocytes from (C57BL/6 x DBA/2)F1 mice showed that they proliferate regardless of whether they express particular V beta-encoded TCR molecules (V beta 6 and V beta 11) that are undergoing intrathymic deletion. In this report, cell culture experiments demonstrate that unstimulated neonatal CD4+ thymocytes from such mice proliferate in vitro in response to a combination of r-IL-2 and r-IL-7. Simultaneous three colour analysis of V beta TCR, CD4 expression, and DNA content of these cultured cells shows that V beta 6+, -8+, and -11+ cells grow equally well. Experiments where cells were cultured overnight in unsupplemented medium did not reveal preferential loss of negatively selected (V beta 6+ and V beta 11+) subpopulations of CD4+ cells. Taken together, these results suggest that IL-2 and IL-7 play a role in the intrathymic proliferation of developing mature T cells.
Ceredig
R
R
Unité 184 de Biologie Moléculaire et de Génie Génétique de l'INSERM, Faculté de Médicine, Strasbourg, France.
Waltzinger
C
C
D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D015704:CD4 Antigens; D002455:Cell Division; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000494:pharmacology*; D015851:Interleukin-7 / Q000494:pharmacology*; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology*
D015704:CD4 Antigens; D007376:Interleukin-2; D015851:Interleukin-7; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta