Mitogenic activation of EL-4 cells does not require surface Thy-1 expression.

The ability of monoclonal anti-Thy-1 antibodies to stimulate IL-2 production and T-cell proliferation has raised the possibility that Thy-1 may play an important role in T-cell activation. To examine this postulated role we have produced Thy-1-negative variants of the murine T lymphoma EL-4 by mutagenesis with ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) and subsequent negative selection with anti-Thy-1 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and complement. Although the parental EL-4 cell line produced interleukin-2 (IL-2) in response to concanavalin A (Con A), phytohemagglutinin, anti-Thy-1 mAbs, and an anti-T3 mAb, as well as after exposure to phorbol myristate acetate (PMA), only PMA was capable of inducing IL-2 production by several Thy-1-negative cell lines. The loss of responsiveness to cell surface stimulatory ligands appeared to be correlated with loss of Thy-1 expression because mutagenized cells selected for high levels of Thy-1 expression all responded normally to Con A. However, when Thy-1 expression was reconstituted in the "nonresponder" (Thy-1-negative) cell lines either by transfection of a Thy-1.2 gene or by 5-azadeoxycytidine treatment, the revertant cell lines were still unable to produce IL-2 when stimulated with Con A, anti-Thy-1, or anti-T3. Furthermore, several other independently derived Thy-1-negative EL-4 cell lines responded normally to mitogens and mitogenic mAbs. Taken together, these results suggest that Thy-1 expression is not required for the T-cell activation process and that the EMS mutagenesis procedure resulted in an additional mutation(s) responsible for the inability of certain Thy-1-negative cell lines to be triggered by mitogens and mitogenic mAbs. These cell lines may prove to be valuable tools for further biochemical and molecular studies of the sequence of events associated with T-cell activation.