Cytotoxic T-cell precursors with low-level CD8 in the diabetes-prone Biobreeding rat: implications for generation of an autoimmune T-cell repertoire.

Lymphocytes from diabetes-prone Biobreeding rats consistently fail to generate T-cell-mediated cytotoxicity under conditions where cytotoxic T lymphocyte activity is readily demonstrated in normal rats. The failure is associated with generalized T-cell lymphopenia and marked reduction in the frequency of CD8+ cells. The few remaining CD8+ cells are widely held to be natural killer cells rather than class I major histocompatibility complex-restricted T lymphocytes. In this report we show that a detectable percentage of CD8+ lymphocytes express the T-cell receptor for antigen, thus identifying them as part of the T-cell lineage. The failure of these CD8+ T-cell-receptor-positive T cells to lyse target cells that are susceptible to T-cell mediated cytotoxicity is associated with markedly reduced expression of cell-surface CD8. Targets expressing higher than normal levels of class I major histocompatibility complex target antigen could be lysed, suggesting that reduction in CD8 has decreased T-cell activity for target antigen. We discuss the derivation of T cells that express low levels of CD8 and the role they could play in generating autoimmune diabetes.