Proliferation and apoptosis of B220+CD4-CD8-TCR alpha beta intermediate T cells in the liver of normal adult mice: implication for lpr pathogenesis.
Small numbers of T cells have been isolated from the normal mouse liver and many of these are of the CD4-CD8-TCR alpha beta+ phenotype. Larger numbers of such cells are present in the livers of mice homozygous for the lpr mutation and the liver has been proposed to be the site of an extrathymic T cell development pathway that is expanded in lpr/lpr mice. Using a modified separation procedure that increases the liver T cell yield, we have been able to characterize a subset of CD4-CD8-TCR alpha beta intermediate T cells that express the B220 epitope of the CD45 molecule, and resemble in this and many other ways the accumulating T cells in lpr lymph nodes. These cells are an actively dividing population and even in healthy, unmanipulated mice a large proportion of them are undergoing apoptosis. We propose the model that the normal liver is a major site for T cell destruction and that the lpr defect results in failure of this process with leakage of B220+CD4-CD8-TCR alpha beta+ cells from the liver to peripheral lymphoid tissues, particularly lymph nodes.
Huang
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L
Section of Immunobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06511.
Sye
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Crispe
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D000818:Animals; D015703:Antigens, CD / Q000032:analysis; D000954:Antigens, Surface / Q000032:analysis*; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000502:physiology*; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D017493:Leukocyte Common Antigens / Q000032:analysis; D008099:Liver / Q000166:cytology* / Q000276:immunology; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta / Q000032:analysis; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000166:cytology*
D015703:Antigens, CD; D000954:Antigens, Surface; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta; D017493:Leukocyte Common Antigens