CD27 induction on thymocytes.

CD27 mAb recognize a disulfide-linked homodimer of 55 kDa present in the majority of T cells and in a minor subpopulation of thymocytes. Although an increase of CD27 expression has been described in activated T cells, this Ag is poorly expressed in long term growing T cells. It has been also reported that CD27- becomes CD27+ upon activation. In the aim to better know the relationship between CD27 expression and the activation and maturation processes, the induction of this Ag in thymocytes was analyzed. The results obtained in this work show that: 1) CD27 is expressed only in thymocytes with high CD3 Ag density. 2) Its expression can be induced in low density CD3 CD4+ CD8+ cells by Con A and in low CD3 Ag density by PMA+ionomycin. 3) PMA alone or in combination with rIL-2 induces CD25 and CD71 expression but not CD27. 4) Unlike CD27, the Ag CD45RA, CD26, and CD76, which are present only in a minor thymocyte subpopulation, are not induced in double positive thymocytes. Because it has been reported that cyclosporin A interferes with thymocytes maturation and blocks the transition from double to single positive cells, its effect was measured on CD27 induction. Cyclosporin A did not inhibit CD25 expression induced by both Con A and PMA+ionomycin, but under these conditions it inhibited the induction of CD27. In this paper we discuss whether CD27 could be implicated in T cell maturation.