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-
ugi
1,*,
*
Laboratory of T Cell Development and
Swim Across America Laboratory, Immunology Program, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10021; and
The Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Cornell University, New York, NY 10021
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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1 and
2 domains,
where it affects the spectrum and conformation of MHC-bound peptides
(6, 7, 8, 9), supports this possibility. Many cases of the
MHC-linked immune response (Ir) gene control were shown to operate via
differential Ag presentation (Refs. 10, 11, 12, 13 , and reviewed
in Ref. 14), providing indirect evidence in favor of this
mechanism. Alternatively, the new class I allele could select new CTL
precursors in the thymus that were not selected by the parental class I
molecule. The role of this mechanism remains speculative
(15), or, when experimental, indirect and limited to
losses in positive (reviewed in Ref. 14) or negative
(13, 16) selection. A mutation in the four clustered amino acids at the floor of the class I H-2Kb molecule separates the parental strain C57BL/6 (B6, H-2b) and the coisogenic strain B6.C-H-2bm8 (bm8, H-2bm8) (17). We recently showed that this polymorphism results in a reciprocal loss-and-gain pattern of T cell reactivities. In this paper we demonstrate that this difference in reactivities is caused by a shift in intrathymic selection. H-2Kbm8 cannot positively select CTLs specific for OVA-8, which are readily selected by H-2Kb, but is able to select HSV-8-specific repertoire that is broader and better in protecting against the viral challenge than the one selected by H-2Kb. Therefore, in an individual, naturally selected Mhc variation produces shifts in intrathymic selection of T cells, so that some new CTL specificities are gained and some of the existing ones sacrificed. The byproduct of this mechanism is the diversification of the immune repertoire and an increase of the defensive fitness of the species.
| Materials and Methods |
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C57BL/6 (B6, H-2b, Thy-1.2; the National Cancer Institute breeding program, Frederick, MD), B6.C-H-2bm8 (bm8, H-2bm8, Thy-1.2), B6.PL-thy-1a/Cy (B6.PL, H-2b, Thy-1.1), and their F1 offspring (The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME, via Dr. J. Sprent, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA) were used at 610 wk. Peptide and virus immunization, restimulation, and 51Cr-release assay were as described (18). Briefly, 7 days following the virus or peptide/adjuvant immunization, spleen cells were restimulated with irradiated (30 Gy) syngeneic spleen cells coated with 10 µg/ml HSV-8 (SSIEFARL) peptide, and the CTL activity was assessed 5 days later in a standard 51Cr-release assay exactly as described (19). For Vß utilization, CTL lines were derived by three successive weekly restimulaitons on peptide-coated spleen cells, thus ensuring that all CD8 T cells will be specific for the HSV-8 peptide.
Flow cytofluorometric analysis
mAb F23.1 (
Vß8) was purified and conjugated to FITC in our
laboratory. Other Abs were purchased from PharMingen (San Diego, CA).
Day 7 restimulated CTL were stained with FITC-conjugated
Vß-specific mAbs and counterstained with an
anti-CD8-PE mAb. Staining, data acquisition, and analysis were as
described (19). Vß utilization was normalized to the
perentage of TCR
ß+CD8+
cells (>90% in all samples), and significance was determined using
the paired Students t test.
Bone marrow irradiation chimera
These were produced as described (20), except that the recipients CD8+ cells were eliminated by two i.p. injections of 100 µg of the anti-CD8 mAb 53.6.7 on days -1 and 1 relative to irradiation. Briefly, B6 or bm8 animals were supralethally irradiated (11 Gy) and reconstituted by the injection of 5 x 106 T cell-depleted (B6.PL x bm8)F1 bone marrow cells i.v. To examine the ability of Kb and Kbm8 molecules present on the thymic radioresistant (epithelial) cells to positively select HSV-8-specific repertoire, chimeric mice were immunized 12 wk later with HSV-8 (whole virus or HSV-8/TM), and the CTL activity was tested as above. At the time of testing, donor-derived cells were found to make up >95% of chimera T cells, as judged by flow cytofluorometric analysis. Furthermore, all chimera responded to HSV immunization, providing an internal control for immunocompetence.
| Results and Discussion |
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Immunization of B6 mice with intracellularly loaded OVA
or the live HSV or with OVA257264 and HSV
glycoprotein B498505 peptides elicits CTL
responses directed against naturally processed,
H-2Kb-restricted epitopes SIINFEKL (OVA-8) and
SSIEFARL (HSV-8), respectively (Refs. 18, 21 and Table I
). An MHC coisogenic mouse strain, bm8,
responded to HSV-8 (Dyall et
al.,2 and Table I
) but
not to OVA-8 (19, 20, 22). The nonresponsiveness to the
latter Ag is caused by the lack of intrathymic pos-itive selection
(Ref. 20 ; and see Table III
).
H-2Kbm8 differs from H-2Kb
by three ß-strand substitutions, Y22
F, M23
I, and E24
S, and
by a loop substitution, A30
N (17), located on the floor
of the peptide binding site (8, 9). Two of them (Y22
F
and E24
S) have the potential to directly affect peptide binding, but
neither of the four has solvent accessibility and thus are predicted
not to interact directly with the TCR (23, 24, 25, 26). Other
parts of H-2Kbm8, including its TCR-contacting
residues, are identical to those of H-2Kb
(9, 17).
|
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-
ugi
, in preparation).)
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TCR repertoire shift by positive intrathymic selection
The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanism responsible
for this increased functional diversity. The differences between the B6
and bm8 anti-HSV-8 CTL repertoire could be caused by differential
Ag presentation, positive or negative intrathymic selection, and/or
peripheral tolerance. H-2Kb and
H-2Kbm8 bind (19) and present (Table I
) HSV-8 with comparable efficacy, and the thermostability of the
HSV-8:H-2Kb and
HSV-8:H-2Kbm8 complexes at the cell surface is
virtually indistinguishable (19). These results ruled out
differences in Ag binding and presentation as an explanation for
different CTL repertoire. Negative intrathymic selection and peripheral
tolerance are dominant traits (3, 28) and, if responsible
for the observed differences, would be expected to delete the
cross-reactive CTLs and eliminate CTLs bearing Vß3, -4, -11, and -13
in (H-2Kb x
H-2Kbm8)F1 mice and in
[(H-2Kb x
H-2Kbm8)F1
H-2Kbm8]
bone marrow irradiation chimera. However, both types of animals
generated CTLs that recognized both HSV-8:H-2Kb
and HSV-8:H-2Kbm8 and displayed a Vß
utilization pattern similar to bm8 CTLs (Tables 24; data not shown),
arguing against negative selection of the
HSV-8:H-2Kbm8-specific CTLs by
H-2Kb.
Intrathymic positive selection was examined in [(B6 x
bm8)F1
parent] bone marrow irradiation
chimera. In these animals, radioresistant thymic epithelium bears
parental H-2 molecules that then positively select the T cell
repertoire from among the immature F1 thymocyte
precursors (2). Following positive selection in the
thymus, selected CTLs can interact with Ags presented by either
H-2Kb or H-2Kbm8, both of
which are expressed by the F1 peripheral APC
(20, 29), and both of which bind and present the HSV-8
peptide efficiently (Table I
, Ref. 19). Upon immunization
with the immunodominant OVA-8 and HSV-8 peptides/adjuvant, these
chimera confirmed a previously observed (20) defect in the
positive selection of anti-OVA-8 CTLs by
H-2Kbm8 (Table III
,
Expt. 1). Both chimera types positively selected HSV-8-specific CTLs,
as evidenced by vigorous lysis of HSV-8-coated F1
cells (Table III
, Expt. 1). However, F1 CTLs
selected by H-2Kbm8
(F1
Kbm8) recognized both
HSV-8:H-2Kb and
HSV-8:H-2Kbm8, whereas the same
F1 cells selected by H-2Kb
(F1
Kb) recognized only
HSV-8:H-2Kb (Table III
, Expt. 2). Immunization
with the whole virus yielded the same results (Table III
, and data not
shown), ruling out possible artifacts of peptide immunization.
Furthermore, the anti-HSV-8 CTL selected by the
H-2Kbm8 thymus utilized a broader array of TCR
Vß genes, compared with the one selected by
H-2Kb (Table IV
).
We conclude that positive intrathymic selection most likely dictates
both the functional and the Vß TCR diversity of the
anti-HSV-8 CTLs.
|
These results demonstrate a shift in intrathymic selection between
H-2Kb and H-2Kbm8
molecules. H-2Kb, but not
H-2Kbm8, can select CTLs specific for OVA-8. In a
reversal of roles, H-2Kbm8 selects anti-HSV-8
CTLs that are not selected by H-2Kb. Our results
(Ref. 20) and this manuscript) strongly suggest that the
difference in selection occurs via positive selection. Formally, we
have to allow the theoretical possibility that negative selection might
be indirectly implicated (e.g., owing to an insufficient density of
H-2Kb:peptide complexes in the
F1
P thymus because of "hemizygosity").
However, the exquisite sensitivity of the immune system to even the low
abundance of deleting Ags and an outright lack of experimental support
for the hemizygosity mechanism render this possibility unlikely.
Preliminary experiments using mixed (B6 + bm8)
P chimeras and thymus
grafting also support this conclusion (data not shown).
The bm8 mutation occurred approximately within the last 40 years (about 200 generations, assuming 5 generations/year) (5). Our recent results indicate that shifts in CTL repertoire occurring as the consequence of this mutation can have palpable consequences for the defense of the individuum, inasmuch as bm8 mice were better equipped to combat the HSV infection than the parental strain, B6. In a typical experiment, when challenged with the same dose of HSV virus, B6 and bm8 mice demonstrated 3.3% (1/30) and 63.3% survival (19/30), respectively.2 Clearly, the reciprocal nonresponsiveness of bm8 mice to OVA-8 is not evolutionary important, but a "hole" in the CTL repertoire directed against a relevant pathogen, owing to the above shift in selection, would produce negative survival effects as well. During evolution, positive and negative intrathymic selection (as well as peripheral tolerance) have come to a balance. For each species, it is believed that an optimal number of the MHC class I molecules was selected to ensure a diverse and functional immune system (6, 7, 15). Indeed, it was calculated that increasing the number of expressed MHC alleles beyond a certain limit leads to a net loss of repertoire by negative selection (15). It is then likely that, for an optimal (and constant) number of MHC molecules expressed, any new allele would lead mainly to qualitative changes in the T cell repertoire of an individuum, since the sum of selected T cell specificities per organism would roughly remain constant (15). Our results demonstrate that the byproduct of shifts in intrathymic T cell selection is an increase in the sum of the selected T cell specificities of the species. Thus, intrathymic selection on newly arising MHC variants can play an important role in enabling the species to more effectively combat a wider spectrum of pathogens and increase its chance for survival.
| Acknowledgments |
|---|
-
ugi
for flow cytometric analysis, Dr.
S. Vukmanovi
(New York University Medical Center, New York)
for the critical comments on the manuscript, and Dr. S.
Silverstein (Columbia University, New York) for the HSV virus. This
work was supported in part by the PEW Charitable Trust, the MSKCC
Society, and the DeWitt Wallace Fund. R.D. was a Thomas Jefferson
predoctoral fellow of the African-American Institute during a part of
this work. J.N.-
was a PEW scholar in the Biomedical
Sciences. | Footnotes |
|---|
-
ugi
, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Box 98, 1275 York Avenue, New York, NY 10021. E-mail address:
2 R. Dyall, I. Messaoudi, S. Janetzki, J. LeMaoult, and J. Nikoli
-
ugi
. Diversification of the antiviral cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) repertoire and enhancement of antiviral resistance by Mhc class I polymorphism. Submitted for publication. ![]()
Received for publication September 13, 1999. Accepted for publication November 24, 1999.
| References |
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, Z., R. H. Schwartz. 1989. The nature of the immune response (Ir) gene defect for pigeon cytochrome c in [B10.A(4R) x B10.PL]F1 mice: a comparison between thymic selection and antigen presentation. Int. Immunol. 1:1.
, A. Molano, J. Nikoli
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ugi
. 1995. CD4-independent in vivo priming of murine CTLs by optimal MHC class I-restricted peptides derived from HIV and other pathogens. Int. Immunol. 7:1205.
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ugi
. 1996. T cell receptor (TCR) recognition of MHC class I variants: intermolecular second-site reversion of an MHC mutation by substituted peptides provides evidence for peptide/MHC conformational variation. J. Exp. Med. 184:253.
-
ugi
, J., M. J. Bevan. 1990. Role of self-peptides in positively selecting the T-cell repertoire. Nature 344:65.[Medline]
-
ugi
, J., F. R. Carbone. 1990. The effect of mutations in the MHC class I peptide binding groove on the cytotoxic T lymphocyte recognition of the Kb-restricted ovalbumin determinant. Eur. J. Immunol. 20:2431.[Medline]
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