Engelhardt B, Görlach H, Risau W, Wekerle H
Max-Planck-Institut für physiologische und klinische Forschung, W.G. Kerckhoff-Institut, Abteilung Molekulare Zellbiologie, Bad Nauheim, Germany.
J Neuroimmunol. 1994 Nov;55(1):69-80. doi: 10.1016/0165-5728(94)90148-1.
Previous work from this laboratory showed that the encephalitogenic potential of myelin basic protein (MBP)-specific T cells is inseparably associated with their cytotoxic potential. MBP-specific T cells lyse all cells that present autoimmunogenic MBP peptide in context of appropriate MHC class II determinants. Beside class II-induced glia cells, blood-brain barrier-derived endothelial cells were identified as highly susceptible target cells for cytotoxic MBP-specific T cells. Here we show that the cytotoxic reaction against endothelial cells essentially differs from cytotoxicity against other target cells. In contrast to classical T cell-mediated lytic responses, which are most efficiently executed by activated T cells, rat brain endothelium (RBE) lysis could only be mediated by resting T cells. Activated MBP-specific T cell blasts were not able to mediate strong RBE lysis. Furthermore, T cell lines with specificities for protein antigens other than MBP did not cause RBE lysis. A role of the cytolytic capacity of resting MBP-specific T cells in the pathogenesis of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis is probable.
