CD8+ cells are the main producers of IL10 and IFN gamma after superantigen stimulation.

Purified CD8+ T cells were recently shown to produce TH1 as well as TH2 types of cytokines upon restimulation, indicating an important role for these cells in regulation of immune responses. However, it is not known if the CD8+ cells would contribute to cytokine production in the presence of cytokine secreting CD4+ cells. In the present study the authors have investigated the proportion of cytokine-producing CD4+ and CD8+ cells in the spleen after in vitro or in vivo stimulation. They found that stimulation of spleen cells with the superantigen Staphylococcal Enterotoxin B (SEB) in the presence of IL4 promoted production of IL10 and IFN gamma predominately by CD8+ cells. In contrast, the production of IL4 was almost exclusively confined to the CD4+ subset. When priming with SEB in vivo before subsequent restimulation in vitro, a protocol previously shown to induce anergy, up to 80% of the IL10 and IFN gamma positive cell expressed the CD8 marker. Taken together, these results emphasize the important role of cytokine-producing CD8+ cells and indicate that CD4+ and CD8+ T cells may, in a given situation, produce distinct cytokines.