Regulation of granulomatous inflammation in murine schistosomiasis. V. Antigen-induced T cell-derived suppressor factors down-regulate proliferation and IL-2, but not IL-4, production by CD4+ effector T cells.

Acute murine schistosomiasis mansoni is characterized by a vigorous CD4+ delayed-type hypersensitivity T cell-mediated granulomatous immune response to deposited parasite eggs. During the chronic stage of infection the granulomatous response is spontaneously down-modulated by Ag-specific Ts cells and their soluble factors. Recently, we established an in vitro model system whereby soluble egg Ag (SEA)-induced acute and chronic infection-derived Ts cells suppressed the proliferation and IL-2 production of acute infection effector delayed-type hypersensitivity T cells. In the present study, culture supernatants harvested from the induced Ts cell cultures were found to suppress, in a non-cytotoxic manner, the SEA-mediated proliferation and IL-2, but not IL-4 production of acute infection CD4+ splenic T cells. Northern blot analysis confirmed that the factor-mediated suppression of IL-2 in the acute infection cells occurred at the transcriptional level as IL-2 mRNA was suppressed within 10 h of SEA stimulation. The acute (A-TseF) and chronic (C-TseF) infection-derived effector suppressor factors were found to be Ag-specific both in production and elicitation of function, and acted without MHC restriction. Moreover, the A-TseF and C-TseF molecules bear binding sites for SEA and an A-TseF was also shown to bind anti-SEA antibodies. Positive selection by flow cytometry showed that the TseF molecules are produced by Ag-stimulated CD4+ acute or chronic infection splenic cells and that CD4+ cells are the target of the suppression.