title: Memory of Epstein-Barr virus-specific cytotoxic T cells in normal seropostive adults as revealed by an in vitro restimulation method.
abstract: Peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) from healthy adults responded with proliferation when stimulated in vitro with lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCL) transformed by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). Proliferation was not dependent on EBV-serologic status of the PBL donors. After 4 times stimulation with the autologous LCL, viable cells recovered from the cultures consisted mainly of T cells in both EBV-seropositive and seronegative individuals. However, the effector functions of T cells from these 2 groups differed. The effector cells generated from PBL of the seropositive group were cytotoxic to autologous LCL cells, but those from the EBV-seronegative group showed little lysis against autologous LCL cells. These results indicate that the EBV-specific cytotoxic T cells (Tc) can be induced in vitro from seropositive but not seronegative individuals. On the other hand, EBV-nonspecific effector cells detected by K-562 target cell lysis were derived from cultures from both the seropositive and seronegative individuals, especially after the first and second stimulations. Lysis of K-562 targets decreased, however, after the third and fourth restimulation. In 56 effector-target combinations, EBV-specific Tc induced always lysed autologous LCL cells more effectively than allogeneic LCL cells. These data together with HLA-typing results suggested a possibility of the HLA-A or -B restriction of the EBV-specific Tc.
mesh_terms: D002455:Cell Division; D003602:Cytotoxicity, Immunologic; D000939:Epitopes; D006680:HLA Antigens / Q000276:immunology; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007156:Immunologic Memory; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000939:Epitopes; D006680:HLA Antigens