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CUTTING EDGE |
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30322
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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-chain phosphorylation, while more
potent partial agonist ligands stimulate later signaling events and
effector cell functions like cytokine production and target cell lysis
(2, 5, 6, 7). Some partial agonists have been shown to have
antagonist activity, but most antagonist peptides stimulate minimal T
cell responses on their own and are classified based on their ability
to inhibit the T cell response to agonist ligand (1, 8). 3A9/AND dual transgenic mice were generated with CD4+ T cells expressing functional TCRs specific for hen egg lysozyme (HEL)3 and moth cytochrome c (MCC) peptides. We found that an antagonist peptide for the 3A9 TCR inhibits the proliferative response of the T cells to the agonist for the AND TCR. These findings indicate that two different TCR species can interact to deliver negative signals during antagonism.
| Materials and Methods |
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AND TCR transgenic mice [TgN(TcrAND)53Hed] (H-2b) mice were purchased from The Jackson Laboratory (Bar Harbor, ME) (9). 3A9 TCR transgenic mice [TgN(TcrHEL3A9)#Mmd] (H-2k) were a gift from Drs. Chris Larsen and Tom Pearson (Emory University, Atlanta, GA) (10). B10.A/Cr (H-2a) mice were purchased from the National Cancer Institute (Frederick, MD). 3A9 and AND mice were bred together to generate 3A9/AND F1 mice transgenic for two TCRs. All mice were housed and maintained in the Emory University Department of Animal Resources facility.
Cells and reagents
T cell lines were generated by stimulating splenic T cells of
AND or 3A9 transgenic mice with either 5 µM MCC peptide 88103
(ANERADLIAYLKQATK) or 1 µM HEL peptide 4862 (DGSTDYGILQINSRW),
respectively. 3A9/AND T cell lines from at least three different
F1 mice were similarly generated by stimulation
with either MCC or HEL. T cells (2 x
105/well) were restimulated every 2 wk in a
24-well plate with appropriate peptide and 5 x
106
-irradiated splenocytes (2000 rad) from
B10.A mice, along with 50 U of IL-2 obtained from the culture
supernatants of IL-2-secreting P815 cells (11). Cell
culture media consisted of RPMI 1640 supplemented with 2 mM
L-glutamine, 0.01 M HEPES buffer, 100 µg/ml gentamycin
(Mediatech, Herndon, VA), 10% FBS (Atlanta Biologicals, Norcross, GA),
and 2 x 10-5 M 2-ME (Sigma, St. Louis,
MO). All peptides were synthesized using F-moc chemistry on a
Symphony/Multiplex Peptide Synthesizer and analyzed by HPLC (Rainin
Instruments, Woburn, MA) and mass spectrometry by the Emory University
Department of Chemistry Core Facility.
T cell proliferation assays
Proliferation assays were conducted by culturing T cells (3
x 104/well) with the indicated peptide and
5 x 105
-irradiated B10.A spleen cells
(2000 rad) in duplicate in a 96-well plate. Proliferating cells were
labeled after 48 h with 0.4 µCi/well of
[3H]thymidine, and after another 18 h the
assays were harvested and analyzed on a Matrix 96 direct ß-counter
(Packard Instruments, Meriden, CT).
For prepulsed antagonism assays, B10.A splenocytes were first incubated with agonist peptide for 2 h before being washed to remove any unbound peptide (12, 13). The APCs were irradiated (2000 rad), combined with T cells and additional peptides, and proliferation was determined as described above. Antagonism assays were also done with no prepulse step as the agonist and antagonist peptides are presented by different MHC molecules, a protocol we have previously used to analyze peptide antagonism of superantigen-stimulated T cells (12).
Ab inhibition experiments were conducted as described above with the addition of 50 µl of culture supernatant from either the KJ25 (anti-Vß3) or KJ16 (anti-Vß8.1, 8.2) B cell hybridomas grown in our laboratory.
Flow cytometry
An anti-Vß8.1, 8.2 (KJ16) Ab was grown, purified, and FITC-conjugated in our laboratory. PE-labeled anti-Vß3 (KJ25) Abs were purchased from PharMingen (San Diego, CA). All flow cytometry data were collected on a Becton Dickinson FACSCalibur (Bedford, MA) and analyzed using FlowJo software (Tree Star, San Carlos, CA).
| Results |
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3A9 and AND TCR transgenic mice were bred to generate Th cells
expressing two different TCRs with known Ag specificities. The 3A9 TCR
transgenic mouse (H-2k) expresses a Vß8.2,
V
3 TCR specific for the HEL peptide 4862 presented by
I-Ak MHC (10), and the AND TCR
transgenic mouse (H-2b) expresses a Vß3, V
11
TCR specific for the MCC peptide 88103 presented by
I-Ek MHC (9). Neither T cell
exhibits any cross-reactivity toward the other Ag, making the
combination of these two TCR ideal for our purposes (data not shown). T
cells from the resulting 3A9/AND F1 offspring
were assayed for reactivity to the HEL and MCC peptides (Fig. 1
A), with greatest
proliferation observed at 1 µM HEL and 1 µM MCC regardless of the
passage Ag. The peak proliferative response of the dual receptor T
cells occurs at the same levels of Ag as compared with single
transgenic 3A9 or AND T cells (data not shown). These results suggest
that both the 3A9 and AND TCRs are expressed on T cells in the
periphery of the 3A9/AND mice.
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Additive effects upon stimulation with HEL and MCC
The proliferation of 3A9/AND T cells was measured in response to
simultaneous stimulation though both TCRs with agonist peptides. T
cells were cultured with APCs expressing both
I-Ak and I-Ek MHC molecules
in the presence of various concentrations of both HEL and MCC peptides
(Fig. 2
). The combination of highly
stimulatory doses of both agonists resulted in a decrease in T cell
proliferation, consistent with the lessened proliferative response
observed with high concentrations of Ag (16). For example,
the maximal proliferative response induced with 1 µM HEL peptide
(4796 cpm) was lessened by the addition of 10 µM MCC (8935 cpm alone,
3195 cpm together). At submaximal concentration combinations, it was
expected that the proliferation of the T cells would be enhanced over
the proliferation induced by either peptide alone. However, at most
points very little effect was seen. The combination of 0.01 µM HEL
(5535 cpm) and 1 µM MCC (6641 cpm) resulted in an intermediate level
of proliferation (5793 cpm).
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A panel of analogue peptides was generated for HEL4862
in an effort to identify an antagonist peptide. Proliferation of single
transgenic 3A9 T cells was measured in response to the analogue
peptides, and those that induced little or no proliferation were tested
in antagonism assays (data not shown). The analogue peptide 59I was
found to be a potent inhibitor of 3A9 T cell proliferation in response
to wild-type HEL peptide (89% inhibition at 100 µM 59I, 2804 cpm HEL
prepulse) (Fig. 3
A). In this
peptide, an asparagine is replaced with an isoleucine at amino acid 59,
which is position 8 of the peptide as identified by the crystal
structure of HEL5062 bound to
I-Ak (17). This amino acid is a
solvent-exposed TCR contact residue with minimal interactions with
I-Ak (17).
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Ab inhibition is TCR specific
Anti-TCR Abs can inhibit T cell responses and are therefore a form
of TCR antagonist (18). To determine whether or not
anti-TCR Abs act in a dominant negative manner, as seen above for
the HEL antagonist 59I (Fig. 3
C), the proliferation of the
3A9/AND T cells was measured in response to HEL and MCC in the presence
or absence of anti-Vß8 and anti-Vß3 Abs. The HEL response
was inhibited by anti-Vß8 Abs, but the anti-Vß3 Abs had
minimal effects on the HEL response (Fig. 4
A). Similarly, the MCC
response was only inhibited by the anti-Vß3 Abs (Fig. 4
B). These results suggest that Ab inhibition is strictly a
cell-surface effect, which differs from the dominant peptide antagonism
observed in Fig. 3
.
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| Discussion |
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There are no models of T cell activation and signaling that predict the segregation of TCR on the surface of a dual TCR cell. In the presence of both Ags, it is difficult to imagine that a T cell is able to differentiate one TCR species from another, making stimulation with two agonists equivalent to an increased level of one. However, the additive effects we have observed are less robust than expected despite the large dose matrices we have analyzed. Upon stimulation with both agonist peptides, the 3A9 and AND TCR should be recruited to a single signaling cap or immunological synapse at the T cell:APC junction (19, 20, 21, 22, 23). If the accumulation of signaling proteins and the consequent activation of signaling cascades is dependent on the number of TCR triggered (24), then the combination of 0.1 µM HEL and 0.1 µM MCC, which both stimulate half maximal proliferation on their own, results in only a small increase in dose. This difference does not greatly alter the overall strength of signal or the extent of proliferation of the cells. Thus, at the majority of concentration combinations T cell proliferation was very similar to that observed with the more potent of the two agonists.
Similarly, the 3A9 and AND TCR should be distributed equally at the initiation of an antagonism assay. Whether an interaction with an antagonist ligand prevents cap formation or transmits a dominant negative signal as the result of a buildup of negative-acting intermediate signaling cascade components and/or the recruitment and activation of phosphatases remains to be determined (23, 25). Our dual TCR system should allow for the analysis of the events occurring during peptide antagonism as each TCR can be independently activated and followed.
A powerful component of our dual TCR system is that the 3A9 and AND TCR
are restricted by different MHC molecules, eliminating the need for
prepulsing APC with agonist before adding antagonist peptide
(12). As seen in Fig. 3
, the HEL antagonist was able to
inhibit the MCC response at a ratio of antagonist to agonist as low as
1:10 (44% inhibition at 100 µM MCC plus 10 µM 59I). These results
demonstrate that antagonist peptides do not need to be in great excess
to inhibit proliferation as suggested by prepulse antagonism assays
(5). In traditional antagonism experiments, the agonist is
incubated with APC before the addition of antagonist to minimize
competition for MHC, relegating antagonist peptides to newly
synthesized or freshly emptied MHC molecules (13). Most
agonist peptides have high affinities for MHC and form very stable
peptide:MHC complexes, suggesting that the number of MHC that become
available for antagonists to bind is low (26). Therefore,
even though antagonists greatly outnumber agonists in traditional
prepulse assays, the numbers bound to MHC are expected to be more equal
(5, 13).
Two recent reports have shown that the negative effects of antagonist peptides in CD8+ dual receptor T cells are not dominant, concluding that peptide antagonism is TCR specific (15, 27). The observed discrepancy between our systems could simply be due to the use of different classes of antagonist peptides. It has been shown that while some antagonist peptides induce no detectable signal transduction on their own, other antagonists possess partial agonist activity and can stimulate cell signals at select concentrations (1, 2, 3, 8, 12). Thus, it may be possible that in our system the HEL antagonist 59I is an active antagonist peptide able to deliver a negative-acting signal to the T cell, while the antagonist peptides used in the CD8+ systems act by competing with agonists for TCR engagement. This model predicts that both passive and active antagonist ligands could exist for a given TCR, such that further analysis of our system could yield a nondominant antagonist. Alternatively, inherent differences between CD4+ and CD8+ T cells may be responsible for the contradictory results obtained between these systems. CD8+ T cells are more sensitive to low levels of peptide, indicating that the activation thresholds for these T cells may be lower than for CD4+ cells. This could indicate that the kinetics of cap formation and T cell activation are different between CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, making the cells more or less sensitive to altered peptide ligands.
Pairing of TCR
- and ß-chains allow for as many as four different
TCR species on the surface of the 3A9/AND T cells. In addition to 3A9
(Vß8.2, V
3) and AND (Vß3, V
11) TCR, hybrid receptors
comprised of the ß-chain from one TCR and the
-chain from the
other could also exist (Vß8.2, V
11 or Vß3, V
3). It is
possible that one of these hybrid TCR could recognize both
MCC:I-Ek and HEL:I-Ak
ligands. However, our data show that most if not all of the HEL or MCC
reactivity of the dual receptor cells was due to stimulation only
through the Vß8- or Vß3-expressing TCR, respectively (Fig. 4
). It
is difficult to imagine that a hybrid molecule could be responsible for
the 71% inhibition observed in Fig. 3
. This is further supported by
our other dual receptor T cells, which express the DO11.10 (Vß8.2,
V
1.1) and AND TCR. Quantitation of the DO11.10 TCR using an
anti-TCR clonotypic Ab reveals TCR numbers similar to those
measured using an anti-Vb8 Ab, indicating that Vß8 is exclusively
paired with V
1.1. Similarly, Vß3 and V
11 are expressed at
equivalent numbers, although at lower levels than Vß8 (our
unpublished observations). These results indicate that there is
preferential pairing between TCR
- and ß-chains, making the
predominate TCR species on the T cells the two transgenic TCR.
In conclusion, we have described a method for the generation of T cells that possess multiple Ag specificities. Our system has allowed for the investigation of TCR antagonism and was used to demonstrate that antagonism can be a dominant effect.
| Acknowledgments |
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| Footnotes |
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2 Address correspondence to Dr. Brian D. Evavold, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Emory University, 1510 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA, 30322. E-mail address: ![]()
3 Abbreviations used in this paper: HEL, hen egg lysozyme; MCC, moth cytochrome C; MFI, median fluorescence intensity. ![]()
Received for publication May 3, 1999. Accepted for publication June 11, 1999.
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