Differential requirement of CD28 costimulation for activation of murine CD8+ intestinal intraepithelial lymphocyte subsets and lymph node cells.

The CD8+CD4- (CD8+) murine small intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs) contain two subpopulations, one expressing alpha alpha-CD8 homodimers and another alpha beta-CD8 heterodimers. In this study, plate-bound anti-TCR beta-chain (TCR-beta) mAb alone or combined with anti-CD28 mAb is used as a model system to study activation requirement of these two CD8+ IEL subsets. In contrast to CD8+ lymph node (LN) cells that require both TCR and CD28 triggering for activation, alpha beta-CD8+ IELs proliferate and produce IL-2 and IFN-gamma when stimulated with anti-TCR-beta mAb alone, and soluble CTLA-4 Ig has no effect on their responses. On the other hand, alpha alpha-CD8+ IELs neither make IL-2 or IFN-gamma nor proliferate even when both stimuli are provided. However, alpha alpha-CD8+ IELs are capable of proliferation in both CD8+ IEL subsets is lower than in CD8+ LN cells, which contributes to the weaker and delayed response of CD8+ IELs.