Hylkema M N, van der Deen M, Pater J M, Kampinga J, Nieuwenhuis P, Groen H
Department of Histology and Cell Biology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
Cell Immunol. 2000 Feb 1;199(2):89-96. doi: 10.1006/cimm.1999.1607.
Previous studies involving the function and development of peripheral T cells have proposed that, in the rat, CD4(+)CD45RC(+)RT6(-) and CD4(+)CD45RC(-)RT6(+) T-cell subsets may represent Th1 and Th2 cells, respectively. Here we tested this hypothesis directly by analyzing frequencies of IFN-gamma- and IL-4-producing cells in these two subpopulations using ELISPOT assays. We found that the CD4(+)CD45RC(-)RT6(+) subset showed higher numbers of IL-4-producing cells than the CD4(+)CD45RC(+)RT6(-) subset and, though less pronounced, that the latter demonstrated higher numbers of IFN-gamma producers. Therefore, we conclude that our results provide evidence for the existence of phenotypically defined Th1 and Th2 cells in the rat. This is supported by the finding that the ratios of IFN-gamma/IL-4 and CD45RC/RT6 correlated positively among various rat strains. Finally, rat strains susceptible to induction of a Th1-mediated autoimmune disease showed the highest CD45RC/RT6 ratio, whereas the reverse was true for strains susceptible to a Th2-mediated autoimmune disease.
先前有关外周T细胞功能与发育的研究表明，在大鼠中，CD4(+)CD45RC(+)RT6(-)和CD4(+)CD45RC(-)RT6(+) T细胞亚群可能分别代表Th1细胞和Th2细胞。在此，我们通过使用ELISPOT分析这两个亚群中产生IFN-γ和IL-4的细胞频率，直接对这一假设进行了验证。我们发现，CD4(+)CD45RC(-)RT6(+)亚群中产生IL-4的细胞数量比CD4(+)CD45RC(+)RT6(-)亚群更多，并且，尽管不太明显，但后者中产生IFN-γ的细胞数量更多。因此，我们得出结论，我们的结果为大鼠中表型定义的Th1细胞和Th2细胞的存在提供了证据。这一结论得到了以下发现的支持：在不同大鼠品系中，IFN-γ/IL-4和CD45RC/RT6的比值呈正相关。最后，易诱发Th1介导的自身免疫性疾病的大鼠品系显示出最高的CD45RC/RT6比值，而对于易诱发Th2介导的自身免疫性疾病的品系，情况则相反。
