The human T cell antigen gp39, a member of the TNF gene family, is a ligand for the CD40 receptor: expression of a soluble form of gp39 with B cell co-stimulatory activity.

Signals delivered to B cells via CD40 can synergize with those provided by other B cell surface receptors to induce B cell proliferation and antibody class switching as well as modulate cytokine production and cell adhesion. Recently, it has been shown that the ligand for CD40 is a cell surface protein of approximately 39 kDa expressed by activated T cells, gp39. Here we report on the isolation and characterization of a cDNA clone encoding human gp39, a type II membrane protein with homology to TNF, and the construction and characterization of a soluble recombinant form of gp39. COS cell transfectants expressing gp39 synergized with either anti-CD20 mAb or PMA to drive strong B cell proliferation and alone were able to drive B cells to proliferate weakly. In all cases the B cell proliferation induced by gp39-expressing COS cells was reduced to background levels by the addition of soluble CD40. Unlike gp39-expressing COS cells, recombinant soluble gp39 was not mitogenic alone and required co-stimulation to drive B cell proliferation. These results suggest that B cells require a second signal besides gp39-CD40 to drive proliferation and that soluble gp39 alone in a non-membrane bound form is able to provide co-stimulatory signals to B cells.