title: Evidence for immunologic immaturity of cord blood T cells. Cord blood T cells are susceptible to tolerance induction to in vitro stimulation with a superantigen.
abstract: T cell blasts resulting from stimulating human cord blood (CB) mononuclear cells (MC) and adult peripheral blood (APB) MC with a bacterial superantigen, toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 (TSST-1), and then with human rIL-2 were investigated for their reactions to restimulation with TSST-1. Expression of TCR V beta 2, which determines the potential reactivity to TSST-1 and of CD45RO, was increased in both TSST-1-induced CB and APB T cell blasts. Most preparations of the TSST-1-induced CB T cell blasts exhibited low or no production of IL-2 and IL-4 in response to restimulation with TSST-1, while the APB T cell blasts showed high responses. TSST-1-induced T cell blasts derived from APB T cells depleted of both CD45RO+ T cells and HLA class II+ T cells showed high IL-2 production in response to restimulation with TSST-1. TSST-1-induced CB T cell blasts generated in the presence of DR+ L cells with high accessory cell activity still showed a low response to restimulation with TSST-1. These results indicate that CB T cells are inherently highly susceptible to tolerance induction by bacterial superantigens, suggesting the immunologic immaturity of CB T cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Tokyo Women's Medical College, Japan.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Imanishi
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nishida
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Uchiyama
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000276:immunology; D001427:Bacterial Toxins; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D016207:Cytokines / Q000096:biosynthesis; D004768:Enterotoxins / Q000276:immunology*; D005312:Fetal Blood / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007108:Immune Tolerance / Q000276:immunology*; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000096:biosynthesis; D018089:Superantigens / Q000276:immunology; D018418:Th2 Cells / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D001427:Bacterial Toxins; D016207:Cytokines; D004768:Enterotoxins; D007376:Interleukin-2; D018089:Superantigens; C030107:enterotoxin F, Staphylococcal