Interleukin-1 restores the impaired cytotoxic T lymphocyte generation in beige mutant mouse.

Spleen cells from C57BL/6 beige mouse showed significantly lower cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) generation in vitro against allogeneic target cells as compared with spleen cells from the wild type, whereas the heterozygous littermate showed a response similar to that of the wild type. In contrast, the responsiveness of beige spleen cells in the mixed lymphocyte reaction against allogeneic stimulator cells was in the normal range, suggesting that beige spleen cells recognize allogeneic stimulator cells to the same extent as spleen cells from normal mouse, resulting in a significant proliferation. The addition of interleukin 1 (IL-1)-containing supernatant from lipopolysaccharide-stimulated J774.1 cells to the culture of spleen cells from beige mouse stimulated with allogeneic cells restored the impaired CTL generation in a dose-dependent manner. The molecules responsible for restoration of the impaired CTL response co-migrated with IL-1 on gel filtration. The addition of purified interleukin 2(IL-2) also augmented the induction of CTL from beige spleen cells. However, the magnitude of augmentation by IL-2 was appreciably lower than that of augmentation by IL-1. These results suggest that the role of IL-1 in the induction of CTL is not only to provide a signal for activated amplifier T cells to release IL-2, but also to magnify otherwise low responsiveness of CTL-precursors and/or CTL-helpers. Moreover, intraperitoneal injection of IL-1 without allo-antigenic stimulation was able to restore the in vitro CTL responsitivity to allo-antigen but not the natural killer cell activity, indicating that IL-1 has a therapeutic potential in vivo for preferentially correcting impaired CTL generation associated with beige mutation.