CD4+ T cell subsets. Lymphokine secretion of memory cells and of effector cells that develop from precursors in vitro.

作者：Susan L. Swain, Adriana Weinberg, Michele English · 发表于：The Journal of Immunology · 年份：1990 · DOI：10.4049/jimmunol.144.5.1788 · 被引用次数：139 · 研究领域：T-cell and B-cell Immunology

We have studied the properties of several developmentally defined subpopulations of CD4+ T cells from normal animals which can be stimulated to secrete lymphokines. We find that the Th cells responsible for direct secretion of lymphokines after stimulation are from a resting, very long lived subpopulation of CD4+ T cells which persists for over 25 wk after adult thymectomy. These T cells are depleted by in vivo administration of antithymocyte serum and they are enriched among T cells which express high levels of Pgp-1. This phenotype suggests that the T cells responsible are most likely memory T cells which have resulted from antigen exposure in vivo. T cells in this subset secrete predominantly IL-2 with small quantities of IL-3, granulocyte/macrophage CSF, and IFN-gamma. In contrast, the CD4+ T cells which require in vitro culture and restimulation before they develop into an effector population with the ability to secrete lymphokines after restimulation, differ dramatically by most of these criteria. The precursors we study are resting Th cells which are considerably shorter lived after adult thymectomy (5 to 10 wk) and resistant to the same doses of antithymocyte serum which deplete the putative memory population. We hypothesize that this precursor population represents naive helper cells which have not yet encountered Ag. The effectors derived from such precursors can be stimulated to secrete high levels of both Th cell types 1 and 2 lymphokines (IFN-gamma, IL-4, IL-5, g...