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Human T Cells: A Lymphoid Lineage Cell Capable of Professional Phagocytosis¹

Yin Wu,^2* Wutian Wu,² Wai Man Wong, Eliot Ward,^* Adrian J. Thrasher,^* David Goldblatt,^¶ Mohamed Osman,^* Paul Digard,^|| David H. Canaday,^# and Kenth Gustafsson^3*

^*Molecular Immunology Unit, University College London Institute of Child Health, London, U.K. Department of Anatomy, State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Research Center of Reproduction, Development and Growth, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China; ^¶Immunobiology Unit, UCL Institute of Child Health, London, U.K.; ^||Division of Virology, Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge, U.K.; ^#Division of Infectious Disease, Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106

Professional phagocytosis in mammals is considered to be performed exclusively by myeloid cell types. In this study, we demonstrate, for the first time, that a mammalian lymphocyte subset can operate as a professional phagocyte. By using confocal microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and functional Ag presentation assays, we find that freshly isolated human peripheral blood T cells can phagocytose Escherichia coli and 1 µm synthetic beads via Ab opsonization and CD16 (FcRIII), leading to Ag processing and presentation on MHC class II. In contrast, other CD16⁺ lymphocytes, i.e., CD16⁺/CD56⁺ NK cells, were not capable of such functions. These findings of distinct myeloid characteristics in T cells strongly support the suggestion that T cells are evolutionarily ancient lymphocytes and have implications for our understanding of their role in transitional immunity and the control of infectious diseases and cancer.

The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

¹ This work was supported by the Jean Shanks Foundation.

² These authors contributed equally to this manuscript.

³ Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Kenth Gustafsson, Molecular Immunology Unit, UCL Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London, U.K. E-mail address: k.gustafsson{at}ich.ucl.ac.uk

⁴ Abbreviations used in this paper: DC, dendritic cell; LCL, lymphoblastic cell line; TEM, transmission electron microscopy; M1, influenza matrix 1 protein; IPP, isopentenyl pyrophosphate; TMR, tetramethylrhodamine; mIL-2, murine IL-2.

⁵ The online version of this article contains supplementary material.