Monoclonal c-myc transformed macrophage cell lines. I. Heterogeneity in ability to process and present antigen.

Processing of proteins into immunogenic forms and their subsequent presentation to T cells are mediated by APC. Monocytes and macrophages have long been recognized as one of the APC types. However, little is known about whether functional heterogeneity in processing and presentation exist within the monocyte/macrophage population. Past difficulties in obtaining clonal representatives of these populations have limited investigations in this regard. The c-myc-containing retrovirus MRV, previously shown to immortalize murine macrophages, was used to generate a large panel of macrophage cell clones. Differences observed in cell surface antigen expression and morphology demonstrated phenotypic heterogeneity among these clones. Functional heterogeneity was also observed both before and after IFN-gamma and IL-4 stimulation. The clones differ in their capacity to present several nominal antigens to T cell hybridomas. When parallel variation in ability to present both a nominal antigen and a peptide representing the epitope for which a T cell hybridoma was specific was observed among the clones, this variation correlated with the levels of surface MHC class II antigen the clones expressed. In contrast, diversity in the ability to process and present certain nominal antigens among clones that all presented the corresponding antigenic peptide with similar efficiency did not appear to be due to differences in levels of surface MHC class II molecules. Our results suggest that the macrophage clones are heterogeneous in their ability to both process and present several antigens. The ability to obtain macrophage tissue culture cell lines displaying phenotypic and functional heterogeneity should allow insight into the impact of normal macrophage heterogeneity on the outcome of immune responses in vivo.