Presentation of Class I antigens on T cells can induce the generation of antigen-specific CTL.
Cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) lines generally require a source of specific antigen to continue to proliferate in vitro. We previously showed that populations of mononuclear cells grown in medium containing interleukin 2 (IL 2) and composed largely of activated T cells were able to present Class I alloantigen to CTL lines. On the basis of these findings we were interested to know whether T cells themselves were able to present antigen or whether this was a function of the small number of contaminating non-T cells. To answer this question, populations of activated or resting mononuclear cells were rigorously depleted of non-T cells before use as antigen-presenting cells. We observed that populations composed of greater than 99% T cells were able to support the differentiation of antigen-specific CTL. These results were confirmed by using cells from an established T cell line. The proliferation of the same lines, however, was less than that of lines grown in the presence of antigen-presenting cells containing some non-T cells. These results suggest that although T cells can present Class I alloantigens to CTL, they may be less effective in triggering cell division than populations containing a source of non-T cells.
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Pickard
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D000938:Antigen-Presenting Cells / Q000276:immunology*; D002460:Cell Line; D002469:Cell Separation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D000939:Epitopes / Q000276:immunology; D006680:HLA Antigens / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007399:Interphase; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000145:classification* / Q000276:immunology; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000276:immunology*
D000939:Epitopes; D006680:HLA Antigens