Regulation of interleukin-2 and interleukin-4 receptor expression in human and ape lymphoid cell lines.

In this study, we have analyzed the expression and regulation of receptors for IL-2 (alpha and beta chains) and IL-4 in four lymphoid cell lines established from leukemic cells. The gibbon ape cell line MLA 144 was the only one to express constitutively the IL-2R beta chain and IL-4R, whereas the NK-like YT cells express only IL-2R beta. The two other cell lines in this study, PEER and HSB2, are derived from T lymphocytes, and express neither IL-4R, IL-2R beta, nor IL-2R alpha unless stimulated. We report here that those receptors that are constitutively expressed, i.e., IL-2R beta on YT cells and IL-2R beta or IL-4R on MLA cells, are down-regulated by stimulation with PHA + PMA. In contrast, RNase protection experiments showed that PHA + PMA stimulation of T cell lines induces mRNA for all three receptors in PEER cells, and only IL-2R alpha and IL-4R in HSB-2. Thus each of these three receptors is subjected to a different regulation, which in addition varies depending on the lineage (or differentiation stage) of the cells. This was further supported by the finding that IL-1 alpha or TNF-alpha regulates these receptors differently. These two cytokines have no effect on IL-2R beta and IL-4R in MLA and YT, but induce IL-2R alpha in YT. In contrast, they do not induce either chains of the IL-2R in the T cell lines PEER or HSB-2, but TNF induces IL-4R mRNA in HSB2 cells, and IL-1 does so in both cell lines.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)