Direct activation of murine resting T cells by con A or anti-CD3 Ig.

The induction of antigen-specific T cell activation is highly dependent on accessory cells (AC) which present processed antigenic fragments associated with MHC molecules and provide costimulatory signals for T cells. Antigen-specific T cell activation requires cross-linking of the TCR and the reception of one or more nonantigen-specific signals which eventually lead to T cell activation and proliferation. This sequence of events can be mimicked by lectins, bacterial enterotoxins, and anti-TCR antibodies in conjunction with APC or the combination of phorbol esters and Ca ionophores. Although the combination of PMA + Ca ionophore and certain types of T-T interactions result in APC independent T cell activation, it is generally assumed that physiologic T cell activation requires APC. The seemingly direct activation of T cells by other T cells is rather surprising in view of the known APC dependence of antigen, lectin and anti-TCR mediated T cell activation. It is conceivable that T cell mediated T cell activation is due to "cryptic" APC contamination because the total absence of APC is difficult to disprove. In reality, neither total depletion nor residual contamination with APC can be proven or disproven experimentally. Thus it can be legitimately argued that both APC dependent and independent T cell activation occur, albeit under different experimental conditions. For instance, it is possible that APC independent activation of T cells by lectins and anti-TCR antibodies would require high concentrations of activators to overide their dependence on APC. It is also conceivable and, in our opinion quite likely, that once activated, T cells could propagate T cell activation through T-T interactions. In this report we test two hypotheses: (1) The triggering of resting T cells leading to autocrine cell proliferation depends entirely on cross-linking TCR molecules, and (2) The presence of activated T cells facilitates TCR mediated activation of resting T cells without the participation of conventional APC. We present evidence that highly purified, small resting T cells can be reproducibly activated with high doses of ConA, plastic bound anti-CD3 mab and its F(ab')2 fragments. This APC independent response results in blastic transformation, expression of the IL2 Receptor, the secretion of IL2 and significant proliferation of both CD4+ and CD8+ murine T cells. These observations demonstrate that vigorous cross-linking of TCRs by anti-CD3 mab and, presumably ConA, is sufficient to induce T cell activation and autocrine (IL2 driven) proliferation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)