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Department of Immunology, The Medical School, Newcastle, United Kingdom
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Abstract |
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 Top Abstract IntroductionMaterials and MethodsResultsDiscussionReferences |
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Introduction |
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TopAbstractIntroductionMaterials and MethodsResultsDiscussionReferences |
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Even less is understood about the mechanisms of positive recognition used by NK cells. Although most Ly49 molecules deliver inhibitory signals as judged by the presence of ITIMs3 in their cytoplasmic domains, at least two members of the Ly49 family, Ly49D and Ly49H, lack ITIMs (11). Ly49D is expressed on a subpopulation of NK cells and may convey activating signals (12). In the rat, there is good evidence that another member of the C-type lectin family, NKRP1, is involved in positive recognition (13, 14). In the mouse, the NK1.1 Ag, which is a homologue of NKRP1 (15), is expressed on all NK cells in appropriate strains (16), is encoded by genes in the NK complex (4), and may be involved in recognition as judged by the ability of Ab to NK1.1 to induce or enhance killing by NK cells (17). Recent studies have indicated that the 10A7 Ab, which reacts with most but not all mouse NK cells (18), binds to one or more members of the mouse NKRP1 family (J. C. Ryan and W. E. Seaman, personal communication) and may therefore delineate a subpopulation of NK cells with distinct recognition capabilities. An alternative view is that NK cell recognition may be mediated, at least in part, by intercellular recognition molecules expressed more widely in the immune system (19). Candidates include CD2 (20), CD28 (21, 22), and CD40 ligand (23). Another possible candidate is CD45, which exists in multiple isoforms having differential cellular expression (24) and has frequently been implicated in NK cell recognition (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32).
The understanding of NK cell recognition in the human has been greatly facilitated by studies at the clonal level. By contrast, for unknown reasons, it has proven extremely difficult to clone mouse NK cells. However, some while ago we found that by using appropriate combinations of IL-4, IL-2, and PMA it was possible to generate long-lived lines of NK cells from the thymus of embryonic mice, permitting for the first time the cloning of mouse NK cells (33). We report here a detailed analysis of the phenotype and specificity of such clones, the results of which would appear to have important implications for our understanding of NK cell recognition and development.
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Materials and Methods |
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TopAbstractIntroductionMaterials and MethodsResultsDiscussionReferences |
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Spleen cells obtained from C57BL/6 mice were treated with anti-CD4 + anti-CD8 and C', washed, and adjusted to approximately 2 x 106/ml in DMEM containing 2x nonessential amino acids and 10% FBS (D10F). Cells were cultured with IL-2 at 104 U/ml in 2-ml aliquots in 24-well plates and were harvested after 3 to 14 days.
Fetal thymus NK cell lines and clones
These were generated and maintained as described previously (33). Briefly, thymocytes were prepared from day 14 embryos of timed-mated mice, cultured for 1 to 3 days in D10F containing 10 U/ml IL-4 and 10 ng/ml PMA, then transferred to D10F containing 104 U/ml IL-2. Clones were derived at this stage by cloning by limiting dilution or micromanipulation in D10F containing 104 U/ml IL-2, 1 U/ml IL-4, and 10 ng/ml PMA, followed by subsequent maintenance in D10F containing 104 U/ml IL-2 alone or 104 U/ml IL-2 + 10 ng/ml PMA.
Immunofluorescence
Direct and indirect immunofluorescence staining was performed by
standard methods. The following mAbs were purchased from PharMingen,
San Diego, CA: phycoerythrin (PE)-53.6.7 anti-CD8
, PE-53.5.8
anti-CD8ß, and FITC-CT1. The following mAbs or hybridomas were
kindly donated by colleagues: KT3 anti-CD3
(K. Tomonari, Harrow,
U.K.), PK136 anti-NK1.1 (G. Koo, Merck, Rahway, NJ), A1
anti-Ly49A (W. Seaman, Veterans Administration Medical Center, San
Francisco, CA), 5E6 anti-Ly49C/I and 10A7 (V. Kumar, Southwestern
Medical Center, Dallas, TX), 4D11 anti-Ly49G (L. Mason, National
Institutes of Health, Frederick, MD), 4E5 anti-Ly49D (J.
Ortaldo, National Institutes of Health, Frederick, MD), HK1.4
anti-Ly6C (F. Fitch, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL), 3C2 (S.
Pollack, University of Washington, Seattle, WA), M1/93 pan-CD45 (I.
Trowbridge, Scripps Clinic, San Diego, CA), and RA3–2C2
anti-CD45RA and CT2 (L. Lefrancois, University of Connecticut,
Storrs, CT). The following hybridomas were obtained from the American
Type Culture Collection (ATCC), Rockville, MD: MB23G2 anti-CD45RB
and I24-D6 anti-CD45RC. Staining was analyzed on a FACScan (Becton
Dickinson, San Jose, CA), using forward and side scatter to gate on
single viable cells.
Cytotoxicity
Cytotoxicity assays were performed using a standard 4-h chromium release assay, with 5000 target cells/well. Effector cells were titrated over a wide range, and lytic activity was calculated as LU/103 effector cells from the slopes of the regression lines fitted to the linear portions of the dose-response curves, as described elsewhere (34). All of the adult and fetal NK cell lines and clones used in this study displayed very high levels of cytotoxicity, similar to those reported previously (33, 35). All assays included the Moloney virus-induced T cell lymphoma of A/Sn mice, YAC-1, as an internal control. Killing of this target invariably exceeded 25% specific lysis at the highest effector cell dose used. To simplifiy data and allow the averaging and statistical analysis of data from repeat experiments, the lytic activity on other targets was expressed as a percentage of that on YAC-1. The other target cells used were: C1498, a spontaneous lymphoma of C57 mice; MBL2, a B cell lymphoma of C57 mice; EL4, a benzpyrene-induced thymoma of C57 mice; RMA, a subline of the RBL5 Rauscher virus-induced T cell lymphoma of C57 mice; A20, a spontaneous B cell lymphoma of BALB/c mice; WR19L, an A-MuLV-induced lymphoma of BALB/c mice; J774, a spontaneous myeloid tumor of BALB/c mice; IC2, a NK-sensitive subline, and av, an NK-resistant subline of the L5178Y methylcholanthrene-induced thymoma of DBA/2 mice; L1210, a methylcholanthrene-induced leukemia of DBA/2 mice; LBRM, a radiation-induced T cell lymphoma of B10.BR mice; R1.1, a spontaneous thymoma of C58 mice; SL8, a spontaneous thymoma of AKR mice; and Y3, a myeloma of Lou/C rats. These lines were kindly provided by colleagues or were obtained from the ATCC.
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Results |
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TopAbstractIntroductionMaterials and MethodsResultsDiscussionReferences |
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Exposure of fetal thymocytes to appropriate combinations of IL-4,
IL-2, and PMA results in the vigorous outgrowth of cells that are
phenotypically and functionally indistinguishable from adult NK cells
with the principal exception that they normally lack detectable
expression of Ly49A, -C, -G, and -I (33, 35). The data presented in
Figure 1
confirm and extend these
findings, showing that C57BL/6 fetal NK cells that are uniformly
negative for the expression of CD3 and uniformly positive for the
expression of NK1.1 not only lack detectable expression of the
above-mentioned inhibitory Ly49 molecules but also of the activating
Ly49 molecule, Ly49D. This was true for both polyclonal C57BL/6 fetal
NK cells and for a range of cloned C57BL/6 fetal NK cell lines that
were examined.
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Ly49 molecules through their recognition of class I molecules and
the subsequent delivery of inhibitory and perhaps also activating
signals are thought to play an important role in determining the lytic
specificity of NK cells. Since C57BL/6 fetal NK cells lack expression
of all of the Ly49 molecules that can be detected by currently
available mAbs, it was of interest to compare their lytic specificity
with that of Ly49-expressing adult NK cells. To do so, we used a
quantitiative cytotoxicity assay in which cytolytic activity was
calculated as LU/103 effector cells from the linear
portion of the dose-response curve (34). This ensures that killing is
not being measured under "saturating" conditions and gives the most
sensitive and accurate assessment possible of the differences in
susceptibility of different target cells. The results summarized in
Figure 2 show that the specificity of
polyclonal fetal NK cells is quite similar to that of polyclonal adult
NK cells. There was perhaps some tendency for fetal NK cells to have a
broader specificity than adult NK cells, as shown by their higher
relative killing of MBL2, J774, IC2, av, R1.1, and SL8. However, none
of these differences between adult and fetal NK cells was statistically
significant. Somewhat surprisingly, therefore, it would appear that the
absence of several inhibitory and at least one activating Ly49 molecule
has little impact on the specificity of NK lysis, at least under the
assay conditions used.
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, is that all 14 fetal NK clones and
subclones examined killed all three targets. Some differences in fine
specificity were observed. For example, clone 922 gave higher killing
of A20 than clone 773.2 (p = 2 x
10-4). However, it is clear that, at least on this set of
target cells, individual fetal NK clones did not differ radically in
specificity.
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, the three clones showed a striking
similarity in specificity, not only to each other but to both
polyclonal fetal NK cells and polyclonal adult NK cells (see Fig. 2
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As in the earlier series, some differences in fine specificity were
noted. In particular, clone 773.2 showed markedly lower killing of A20
compared with either clone 923.3 (p = 2 x
10-5) or clone Cc5H10 (p = 5
x 10-8) or compared with polyclonal NK cells
(p = 4 x 10-9 for adult NK
cells, p = 3 x 10-9 for fetal NK
cells). However, overall, the data show that the specificity of
individual fetal NK clones is as broad as that of polyclonal NK cell
populations.
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The simplest interpretation of these results would be that most or
perhaps all individual NK cells share the same broad lytic specificity.
However, this conclusion is dependent on the assumption that all cells
within a clonal population are identical. Detailed phenotypic analysis
of fetal NK clones revealed that this assumption was not correct. Thus,
whereas the cells present in cloned populations (and polyclonal
populations) of fetal NK cells were uniformly positive or negative for
most cell surface molecules (such as NK1.1, CD3, and Ly49; see Fig. 1),
they varied in their expression of a number of molecules, most of which
also vary on adult splenic NK cells and may therefore define
functionally distinct subpopulations. Among these are 10A7 (18), a
highly NK cell-specific molecule, which is probably a member of the
NKRP1 family (J. C. Ryan and W. E. Seaman, personal
communication), Ly6C, a glycophosphatidylinositol (GPI)-linked
membrane-signaling molecule also expressed by subpopulations of T cells
and by myeloid cells (36), and 3C2, a molecule of unknown nature that
is present on a subpopulation of splenic NK cells (37). Figure 5 shows examples of the staining patterns
obtained with cloned and uncloned populations of NK cells. Uncloned
fetal NK cells displayed a similar pattern of heterogeneous expression
of 10A7, Ly6C, and 3C2 to that shown by adult splenic NK cells. Each of
the three NK cell clones showed a distinct pattern of staining.
Unexpectedly, they frequently contained clearly defined subpopulations
of cells differing in their expression of these molecules. Adult and
fetal NK cells also showed heterogeneous expression of the CD45RA and
RB isoforms and of the CD45 glycosylation variants CT1 and CT2 (38)
(only data for CT2 are shown in Fig. 5). Again, the same was often true
for cloned fetal NK cell lines. We also found heterogeneous expression
of the B220 isoform of CD45 on cloned NK cells (data not shown). By
contrast, both cloned and uncloned NK cells displayed a uniformly high
level of expression of CD45 molecules in total, as revealed by staining
with a pan-CD45 mAb (Fig. 5), and also of the CD45RC isoform (not
shown).
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Most of the NK clones we have studied were derived by limiting
dilution. As determined by Poisson analysis, their probability of
monoclonality was >95%. To formally exclude any possibility of a lack
of monoclonality, several of the fetal NK clones were recloned by
micromanipulation. The results of one such experiment are shown in
Figure 6. Clone 923 showed heterogeneous
staining for 10A7, Ly6C, and 3C2. In addition, although the vast
majority of cells present in adult and fetal NK cell preparations are
CD8-, clone 923 was one of a small number of clones
that expressed CD8. CD8 but not CD8ß was expressed, and only
25% of the cells in this clone were CD8+. All of the
subclones obtained by micromanipulation recloning of clone 923 showed
heterogeneous staining with at least one mAb (typical results for 5
subclones are shown). Two further important observations were made in
this experiment. First, the complexity of the staining patterns in the
subclones was lower than in the parental clone, several of the
subclones being either uniformly positive or uniformly negative for the
variable Ags. In particular, subclone 5 displayed heterogeneity only
for Ly6C. Second, the pattern of staining of each subclone differed not
only from that of the parent clone but also from that of other
subclones. These results suggest that each cell in the highly
diversified clone 923 parental population was itself capable of
undergoing diversification and that the diversification process was
both random and time dependent. Furthermore, since all of the subclones
were maintained under the same continuous growth conditions and grew at
approximately the same rate, these results collectively eliminate the
possibility that the differences in Ag expression seen on individual
cells within fetal NK clones are related to cell cycle or activation
events.
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. At day 40, 5 days
after the data for Figure 6 had been collected, one change in the
staining pattern had already occurred, namely the acquisition of a
small subpopulation of 3C2low cells. Even more
convincingly, by day 103 subpopulations of both 10A7+ cells
and CD8+ cells had appeared, resulting in the 923.5
"clonal" population now being as complex as the parental 923 clone.
Over the next 170 days, although the relative balance between positive
and negative subpopulations for each Ag fluctuated, there were no
further major changes. Importantly, the newly arising variants did not
out-grow and displace the original cell population. It therefore
appears that once a highly diverse population has been created, there
is some mechanism for maintaining it in a state of semiequilibrium. A
partial but incomplete explanation for this is that the capacity of
fetal NK cells to diversify is long lived. Thus, 6 mo after the
recloning of clone 923, two of the daughter subclones, 923.3 and 923.5,
were themselves recloned by micromanipulation. The second generation of
daughter subclones showed a similar initial reduction in complexity,
followed by gradually increasing diversification as described above for
the first generation of subclones (data not shown).
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The finding that daughter subclones isolated from a complex
parental clone each has a different subpopulation composition, and that
the proportion of cells positive for one Ag can fluctuate independently
of the proportion of cells positive for other Ags, indicates that the
expression of variable Ags is independent. To test this directly,
two-color fluorescence experiments were performed. The results
illustrated in Figure 8 show that for a
given pair of variable Ags all four possible subpopulations (double
negative, double positive, and each of the single positives) existed.
More importantly, the proportion of double positives was close to that
expected for independent expression, i.e., the product of the
proportions of cells positive for expression of each individual Ag. For
example, clone 923.5 contained 59.6% Ly6C+ cells and
15.6% CD8+ cells, giving an expected proportion of double
positive cells of 9.2%; the observed figure was 7.8%. Similarly, in
clone Cc5H10 there were 48.2% CT1+ cells and 60.3%
3C2+ cells, giving an expected proportion of double
positive cells of 29.1%; the observed figure was 30.4%.
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Although fetal NK cells derived from C57BL/6 mice are uniformly
negative for expression of all Ly49 molecules for which Abs are
currently available, we have found that fetal NK cell populations
generated from certain other strains of mice occasionally show limited
expression of Ly49 molecules. Some examples are shown in Figure 9. The second column shows a population
of fetal NK cells derived from CBA mice, stained after 20 days in
culture, in which 3% of cells expressed molecules recognized by mAb
5E6 (presumably Ly49C and/or -I) and about 1% expressed molecules
recognized by mAb 4D11 (presumably Ly49G). When clones derived from
such populations were examined, most were uniformly negative. However,
occasional positive clones were found. For example, one clone (see
third column of Fig. 9), derived by limiting dilution from CBA mice,
expressed Ly49C/I but not -G. Another (fourth column), derived by
micromanipulation from (C57BL/6 x BALB/c) F1
mice, expressed Ly49G but not -A (at least the C57 allelic form), -C,
or -I. Importantly, of the four fetal NK cell clones that we have so
far found to express Ly49 molecules, in each case only a proportion of
the cells within the clones was positive, and only one of the three
anti-Ly49 mAbs that we have used detected positive cells within a
given clone.
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Discussion |
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TopAbstractIntroductionMaterials and MethodsResultsDiscussionReferences |
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Despite the general failure of C57BL/6 fetal NK cells to express any of the Ly49 molecules currently detectable with Abs, polyclonal populations of these cells displayed essentially the same specificity as Ly49-expressing adult NK cells when tested on a large panel of tumor target cells, even though all the targets (with the exception of LBRM) expressed MHC class I molecules. The similarity in specificity even extended to target cells expressing syngeneic (H-2b) class I molecules. It would therefore appear that under the conditions that these experiments were performed, recognition and signaling by Ly49 molecules played a negligible role in determining the lytic specificity of NK cells. The reason for this is unclear, since in both the original description of the function of Ly49 molecules (39) and in several subsequent studies (for example, see Refs. 40 and 41) similar assays and target cells were used, yet the influence of Ly49 molecules could be clearly seen. Although in one study (42) allorecognition by mouse NK cells was found to be more pronounced on blast cell targets than on tumor cell targets, this was the opposite of what was found in another study (40), and in our own system adult NK cells showed strong preferential killing of mutant class I-deficient tumor cells (our unpublished observations). Two explanations can therefore be offered for the similar specificity of Ly49-deficient fetal NK cells and Ly49-sufficient adult NK cells: either negative signaling following class I recognition in this system is mediated predominantly by molecules other than Ly49A, -C, -G, or -I; or most of the NK sensitive tumor cells used in this study have positive recognition structures that override negative signaling induced by class I. Intriguingly, we have recently found that Ly49-deficient fetal NK cells can indeed discriminate between matched pairs of class I-sufficient and class I-deficient tumor and blast cell targets, albeit to a lesser extent than adult NK cells (61).
Regardless of the role of negative signaling receptors, the close similarity in specificity of polyclonal fetal NK cells and adult NK cells strongly suggests that fetal and adult NK cells share the same positive recognition receptors and that these receptors have a similar clonal distribution in terms of both frequency and level of expression on these two types of NK cell. Three general theories have been put forward to explain the broad specificity of recognition by polyclonal populations of NK cells: 1) each NK cell has a unique and highly specific receptor, the broad specificity of polyclonal NK cell populations representing the summation of the specificities of individual NK cells; 2) all NK cells share a single receptor that recognizes broadly expressed target cell structure(s); 3) there are multiple receptors, all of which, or only some of which, may be shared between individual NK cells. Although the nature of the activating receptor(s) on NK cells is still unknown, it is clear from the present study that the single activating molecule envisaged in models 1 and 2 cannot be Ly49D.
In principle, theory 1 (as stated above) can be distinguished from theories 2 and 3 by examining the specificity of cloned NK cells. In the present case, such an examination revealed that individual fetal NK clones shared the same broad recognition capability both with each other and with polyclonal populations of fetal and adult NK cells, although occasional minor yet highly significant differences existed between individual clones and between clones and polyclonal NK cell populations in the lysis of particular targets. These findings argue strongly against model 1. However, because fetal NK cell clones violate the normal principles of clonal homogeneity and invariance it could be argued that each cell within an NK cell clone expresses a unique receptor. This seems unlikely, however, especially as it would require that the (other) surface molecules that vary within NK clonal populations have no influence on specificity. Model 2 cannot be ruled out, provided the differences in fine specificity were due to the influence of negative signaling receptors. Overall, however, we believe that the cytotoxicity and phenotypic data are most compatible with a version of model 3 in which NK cell diversity is created by variable expression of a limited set of cellular interaction molecules resulting in individual NK cells sharing some but not all receptors and polyclonal populations (including established "clones") having a similar broad but not necessarily identical specificity. Our finding that fetal NK cell clones all have a similar broad specificity is different from that reported in a study of NK cell clones derived from adult p53-deficient mice (43). A possible explanation would be that adult NK cells do not undergo diversification during culture in vitro.
The surface molecules that we have found to display variation on fetal
NK clones are 10A7, Ly6C, Ly49, 3C2, CD8, and certain isoforms of CD45.
Variation in expression of these molecules is clearly not an artifact
of long-term culture nor a peculiarity of fetal NK cells, because all
of these molecules, with the exception of CD8, also show variable
expression on short-term cultures of both fetal and adult NK cells. The
finding of CD8 expression on some fetal NK clones was unexpected, as
mouse NK cells are generally considered to be CD8-. By
contrast, CD8 is expressed on rat and human NK cells, but in both cases
shows two parallels with the expression we have found on mouse fetal NK
clones: 1) CD8 - but not CD8 ß-chains are expressed (44, 45); and
2) it is only expressed on a proportion of NK cells (46, 47). Its
unexpected appearance on some mouse fetal NK clones suggests that the
fetal/neonatal NK repertoire may differ somewhat from the adult
repertoire, that CD8-expressing NK cells are strongly selected against
in polyclonal populations, or that CD8-expressing NK cells become
sequestered at sites other than the spleen.
Variation in Ag expression on fetal NK cells is a highly restricted and
selective phenomenon, since most surface molecules show no variation
either on polyclonal populations of NK cells or on individual fetal NK
clones (Refs. 33 and 35; our unpublished observations). The selectivity
of antigenic variation on NK cells is illustrated not only by the
differential expression of CD8 and CD8ß discussed above, but by
the variable expression of one NKRP1 family member (10A7) and the
invariant expression of another (NK1.1), and most strikingly within the
CD45 family, where the total amount of CD45 expression on NK cells is
remarkably uniform even on polyclonal NK cell populations, but the RA
and RB isoforms, together with the glycosylation-dependent isoforms CT1
and CT2, are variable. Yet, although variation is restricted to a
subset of surface molecules, the diversity created is
potentially enormous. If each of the variable CD45R isoforms is
counted separately, the number of variable molecules that we have
identified so far, excluding Ly49, is eight, and presumably this is a
fraction of the actual number. Two-color flow cytometric analysis
revealed that the expression of individual variable Ags occurred
independently. Thus, within a few weeks of growth, an individual fetal
NK cell is potentially capable of generating a repertoire composed of
at least 28 (>200) members.
The pattern of expression of the variable Ags on fetal NK cells rules out several trivial explanations. The possibility that variation is cell cycle dependent is eliminated by the observations that: 1) for most of the variable Ags, clones or subclones have been found in which expression over a period of days or weeks is either 0 or 100%; 2) there appears to be no correlation between the expression of individual variable Ags; and 3) there can be spontaneous gain of Ag expression. Furthermore, we have found that if a clone is enriched by cell sorting into Ag+ and Ag- fractions, the proportions of Ag+ and Ag- cells in the two enriched subpopulations changes very little, if at all, over a period of several days active growth (our unpublished data). These same considerations, coupled with the fact that the fetal NK cell lines and clones grow in continuous culture, without the need for feeder cells or periodic restimulation, rules out the notion that these molecules are "activation Ags." (Note that although PMA was used to promote the growth of some clones, the use of this reagent was not the cause of heterogeneity, since its withdrawal did not affect the pattern of Ag expression, and several of the clones studied, in particular clone 923 and its subclones, were maintained throughout in the absence of PMA.) Lack of monoclonality was ruled out by serial micromanipulation recloning. Conventional mutation can also be ruled out for many reasons; in particular, the acquisition of variation is far too rapid and far too common (most variable Ags show variation on most clones). In addition, there is a clear predominance of Ag gain over Ag loss, which, along with the speed of variation and its existence among the cells present in short term cultures of fetal or adult NK cells, distinguishes this phenomenon from cellular senescence, a process in which long-term cell lines show a progressive loss of Ag expression. It is also important to note that although Ly6C and CD45 isoforms often show differential expression on different types of T cells, their expression on individual long-term T cell clones is both uniform and constant (see for example, Refs 38 and 48–52), as is CD8.
Not only is Ag gain more frequent than Ag loss, but in fact in our extensive studies of fetal NK clones and lines we have not observed a single instance of the complete extinction of an Ag-defined subpopulation once acquired. These findings pose intriguing questions regarding the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in the generation and maintenance of diversification within NK clones. It bears a superficial resemblance to phase variation in bacteria, which in at least some cases is mediated by random inversion of DNA in the promoter region of the relevant gene (53). It is also reminiscent of position effect variegation in Drosophila (54) and the possibly related phenomenon of genomic imprinting in mammals (55). Control of gene expression in these circumstances is thought to be mediated by alterations in local chromatin structure and/or DNA methylation. A striking example of the random expression of a human CD2 transgene in mouse T lymphocytes caused by position effect variegation has recently been reported (56). Another possibility is that the regulatory factors that control the expression of the variable genes in fetal NK cells are at limiting concentration and due to dilution or asymmetric partitioning at division fall below a critical level. In the case of CD45, the variant forms of Ag are generated at the post-transcriptional level via differential exon splicing (24) and by changes in glycosylation (38); but the mechanisms involved are poorly understood and may involve changes in splicing factors and glycosylation enzymes that are ultimately controlled at the transcriptional level.
The function of most of the molecules that we have found to vary on NK cell clones is unclear. However, with the exception of 3C2, about which virtually nothing is known, there is indirect evidence that they may play some role in NK cell recognition and signaling. As already mentioned, 10A7 is an NK-specific molecule that probably belongs to the NKRP1 family. Ly6C is more widely expressed in the immune system, but recent studies indicate that it may have an important role in intercellular recognition. Thus, whereas alloreactive Ly6C+ and Ly6C- CTL clones were able to lyse lymphoid target cells, only Ly6C+ clones could lyse nonlymphoid target cells, and both the killing and the binding of Ly6C+ cells to nonlymphoid target cells was inhibited by an anti-Ly6C mAb (48). Likewise, Abs to CD45 have frequently been reported to interfere with NK cell killing (25, 26, 27, 28, 29), and in some cases inhibition has been selective for certain types of target cell (28, 29). It has been suggested that sugar residues on CD45 molecules are involved in the binding of NK cells to targets (30). An alternative possibility is that CD45 itself is not directly involved in NK cell recognition but is noncovalently associated with molecules that are involved (57). Different CD45 isoforms may associate with different surface molecules (58). It is interesting to note that the invariant intracellular domain of CD45 is a protein tyrosine phosphatase (59). In view of the recent finding that negative signaling by p58/p70 killer cell inhibitory receptors in the human involves the binding of protein tyrosine phosphatase SHP-1 to ITIMs in the cytoplasmic domains of these molecules (60), it is conceivable that CD45 isoforms may act as conveyors of inhibitory signals in NK cells.
Of particular interest is that Ly49 molecules are also affected by the variation mechanism. Although fetal NK cell lines and clones generally fail to express any of the Ly49 molecules that can currently be detected with Abs, we have found some occasional exceptions to this rule, most commonly in fetal NK cells from non-C57 strains. Most remarkably, even in clonal populations of these cells only a proportion of the cells were positive for Ly49. Furthermore, within the limits of the range and specificity of anti-Ly49 Abs available to us, it appeared that a given clone expressed only a single Ly49 species. These observations suggest that both stochastic and nonstochastic mechanisms control the expression of Ly49 molecules in fetal NK cell clones. Thus, as with the other variable Ags discussed above, a stochastic element leads to only a proportion of cells within an NK cell clone expressing a given Ly49 molecule. However, each of the fetal clones that express Ly49 molecules seems committed to expressing only one (or a limited number) of all Ly49 molecules. These intriguing findings suggest that further investigation of this system may provide important insights into the cellular and molecular mechanisms that control the development of the NK cell recognition repertoire in vivo.
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Acknowledgments |
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Footnotes |
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2 Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. C. G. Brooks, Department of Immunology, The Medical School, Newcastle, NE2 4HH, U.K. E-mail address:
3 Abbreviations used in this paper: ITIM, immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibitory motif; D10F, DMEM containing 2x nonessential amino acids and 10% FBS; LBRM, a radiation-induced T cell lymphoma of B10.BR mice.
Received for publication August 27, 1997. Accepted for publication November 12, 1997.
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References |
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TopAbstractIntroductionMaterials and MethodsResultsDiscussionReferences |
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and CD8ß associated with MHC-restricted and non-MHC-restricted cytolytic effector cells. Cell. Immunol. 131:352.[Medline]
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F. Gays, M. Unnikrishnan, S. Shrestha, K. P. Fraser, A. R. Brown, C. M. G. Tristram, Z. M. A. Chrzanowska-Lightowlers, and C. G. Brooks The Mouse Tumor Cell Lines EL4 and RMA Display Mosaic Expression of NK-Related and Certain Other Surface Molecules and Appear to Have a Common Origin J. Immunol., May 15, 2000; 164(10): 5094 - 5102. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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J. A. Toomey, M. Salcedo, L. A. Cotterill, M. M. Millrain, Z. Chrzanowska-Lightowlers, J. Lawry, K. Fraser, F. Gays, J. H. Robinson, S. Shrestha, et al. Stochastic Acquisition of Qa1 Receptors During the Development of Fetal NK Cells In Vitro Accounts in Part But Not in Whole for the Ability of These Cells to Distinguish Between Class I-Sufficient and Class I-Deficient Targets J. Immunol., September 15, 1999; 163(6): 3176 - 3184. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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A. Kubota, S. Kubota, S. Lohwasser, D. L. Mager, and F. Takei Diversity of NK Cell Receptor Repertoire in Adult and Neonatal Mice J. Immunol., July 1, 1999; 163(1): 212 - 216. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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 C. S. Chang, L. Brossay, M. Kronenberg, and K. P. Kane The Murine Nonclassical Class I Major Histocompatibility Complex-like CD1.1 Molecule Protects Target Cells from Lymphokine-activated Killer Cell Cytolysis J. Exp. Med., February 1, 1999; 189(3): 483 - 491. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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