Tan J T, Dudl E, LeRoy E, Murray R, Sprent J, Weinberg K I, Surh C D
Department of Immunology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2001 Jul 17;98(15):8732-7. doi: 10.1073/pnas.161126098. Epub 2001 Jul 10.
In T cell-deficient conditions, naive T cells undergo spontaneous "homeostatic" proliferation in response to contact with self-MHC/peptide ligands. With the aid of an in vitro system, we show here that homeostatic proliferation is also cytokine-dependent. The cytokines IL-4, IL-7, and IL-15 enhanced homeostatic proliferation of naive T cells in vitro. Of these cytokines, only IL-7 was found to be critical; thus, naive T cells underwent homeostatic proliferation in IL-4(-) and IL-15(-) hosts but proliferated minimally in IL-7(-) hosts. In addition to homeostatic proliferation, the prolonged survival of naive T cells requires IL-7. Thus, naïve T cells disappeared gradually over a 1-month period upon adoptive transfer into IL-7(-) hosts. These findings indicate that naive T cells depend on IL-7 for survival and homeostatic proliferation.
在T细胞缺陷的条件下,初始T细胞会因与自身MHC/肽配体接触而发生自发性“稳态”增殖。借助体外系统,我们在此表明稳态增殖也依赖细胞因子。细胞因子IL-4、IL-7和IL-15在体外增强了初始T细胞的稳态增殖。在这些细胞因子中,仅发现IL-7至关重要;因此,初始T细胞在IL-4缺陷和IL-15缺陷的宿主中发生稳态增殖,但在IL-7缺陷的宿主中增殖极少。除稳态增殖外,初始T细胞的长期存活也需要IL-7。因此,将初始T细胞过继转移至IL-7缺陷的宿主后,它们会在1个月的时间里逐渐消失。这些发现表明,初始T细胞的存活和稳态增殖依赖于IL-7。