Delivery of exogenous antigen into the major histocompatibility complex class I and class II pathways by electroporation.

Exogenous, nonreplicating protein antigens (Ags) are usually taken up by antigen-presenting cells (APCs) via endocytosis or pinocytosis and enter the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II processing and presentation pathway. Although exogenous Ags are not processed and presented in the class I pathway by most cells, soluble proteins can enter the class I processing and presentation pathway if they are introduced directly into the cytoplasm of APCs. The purpose of these studies was to determine whether exogenous proteins could be processed and presented to T cells if they were delivered into cells by electroporation. The conditions for electroporation were optimized so that the viability of the electroporated cells was high, and the majority of electroporated cells had protein incorporated. Electroporated B cells not only presented exogenous ovalbumin to CD8+, class I MHC-restricted T cells but also stimulated CD4+, class II MHC-restricted T cells. Electroporated cells also primed Ag-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) in vivo, stimulated CTL precursors in vitro, and served as target cells for lysis by Ag-specific CTLs, indistinguishable from transfected cells. Thus, electropermeabilized cells were structurally intact, and the introduced exogenous protein was processed and presented in association with both class I and class II MHC molecules. This approach is as efficient and reproducible as other techniques of delivering exogenous proteins into the intracellular processing pathways. These studies suggest that electroporation could be employed for the study of cell-mediated immunity to various exogenous proteins.