Regulation of expression of T cell gamma chain, L3T4 and Ly-2 messages in Abelson/Moloney virus-transformed T cell lines.

Recent results have suggested that T cells may exist in two distinct pathways, one expressing alpha and beta chain of the T cell receptor genes with either or both of the cell surface markers CD4 and CD8, while the other is negative for these cell surface markers and expresses the T cell-specific gamma chain genes. The relationship between these two pathways is not known. In this study, we have examined a series of either Abelson virus or Moloney virus-derived T cell lines for their expression of these T cell receptor and cell surface marker genes. Results indicate that the Abelson T cell lines do not express the cell surface markers CD4 and CD8, but express relatively high levels of gamma chain transcripts. After culture of these cell lines with the phorbol ester phorbol myristate acetate and interleukin 2, a down-regulation of these gamma chain transcripts can be observed. More interestingly, we found that the Moloney virus-derived T cell lines, which express the cell surface markers CD4 and/CD8, contain high levels of alpha and beta chain T cell receptor transcripts but little or no gamma transcripts even though they have rearranged these latter genes. The gamma transcripts, however, can be induced to high levels after culture with phorbol myristate acetate and interleukin 2. In the process, the cell surface markers CD4 and CD8 and their transcripts were dramatically down-regulated resulting in cells with high levels of gamma chain transcripts and a CD4-CD8- phenotype. The regulation of expression of these genes is reversible. Taken together, these results indicate that the T cell receptor gamma chain genes and those of the cell surface markers CD4 CD8 can be regulated in vitro by external factors and it opens up the possibility of studying the regulatory sequences associated with these genes.