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UPRES-EA2193, Institut Fédiratif de Recherche 35, Physiopathologie Métabolique et Nutritionnelle, Université de la Méditerranée, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Timone, Marseille, France; and
Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale Unité 119, Institut Fédiratif de Recherche 57, and
Centre dImmunologie, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique de Marseille-Luminy, Institut Fédiratif de Recherche 57, Institute of Immunology and Cancer, Marseille, France
| Abstract |
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-chain and few other polypeptides
without affecting the recruitment of ZAP70. Other downstream effectors
of the TCR/CD3 transduction machinery, such as phosphatidylinositol
3-kinase p85
, p59fyn, linker for
activation of T cells (LAT), and phospholipase C-
1, are not
affected. In some patients, the severity of this phenotypic deficit
could be linked to low levels of p56lck mRNA
and resulted in the failure to efficiently induce the expression of the
CD69 early activation marker. We propose that a primary deficiency in
human type 1 diabetes is a defect in TCR/CD3-mediated T cell activation
due to the abnormal expression of the p56lck
tyrosine kinase. | Introduction |
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cells. The severity
of the disease is influenced by environmental and genetic factors,
which may either delay or accelerate the onset of the overt disease
(2, 3). Among the putative loci of predisposition
identified, several genes regulating immune responses are candidates
(4). The major susceptibility locus is linked to the MHC
region, the expression of specific MHC alleles being necessary but not
sufficient for the appearance of diabetes in rodents and humans
(5). The involvement of other predisposition genes is
suspected to explain the numerous immunological abnormalities shared in
different models of type 1 diabetes. In humans, one of these immune
phenotypes is characterized by low proliferation and poor cytokine
production by T lymphocyte in response to TCR/CD3-mediated agonists in
vitro (6, 7). The reduced T cell activation can be
partially compensated by additional costimulatory signals, such as
combinations of CD2/CD28 mAbs or exogenous cytokines. These results are
in favor of a constitutive defect in the TCR/CD3 transduction pathway.
A comparable phenotype has been described in the nonobese diabetic
(NOD)3 mouse model for
which thymocyte proliferation was used as a readout of T lymphocyte
hyporesponse (8). In this model, a normal in vitro
proliferative response can be recovered by the addition of exogenous
IL-4, and systemic IL-4 injection in disease-prone female NOD mice can
prevent the development of diabetes (9, 10). The
development of diabetes can also be abrogated by the injection of
proinflammatory cytokines such as TNF (11, 12, 13) or by
intercurrent infections (14). All these observations
support the notion that a deficient rather than an exaggerated T cell
response might predispose to the development of type 1 diabetes
(15).
Several groups undertook a more refined exploration of the signal
transduction pathway downstream of the TCR/CD3 complex in mice and
humans. As for several receptors, early events in T cell activation
require the recruitment of protein tyrosine kinases (PTK). In T
lymphocytes, the coengagement of the TCR/CD3 complex with the CD4 or
CD8 coreceptors brings the p56lck tyrosine
kinase in the vicinity of the CD3 chains (16, 17). This
kinase phosphorylates the CD3
immunotyrosine activation motifs
allowing the docking of the Syk-family tyrosine kinase ZAP70, which in
turn phosphorylates neighboring linker proteins such as linker for
activation of T cells (LAT). Adaptor proteins accumulate on this
scaffold and recruit several key effector enzymes such as phospholipase
C-
1 (PLC-
1) or the p21ras GTPase. Further
downstream events will trigger a Ca2+ influx and
activation of PKC and mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK). Whereas
full T cell activation requires the simultaneous activation of all
these pathways, several reports described that a partial activation
signal can trigger a state of T cell unresponsiveness or skew the
engagement of effector functions (18, 19). Although
different signal transduction mechanisms are involved, incomplete
activation signals can be due to a less efficient recognition of
MHC-bound peptides, to a lack of engagement of costimulatory molecules
such as CD28, or to the sequestration of the coreceptor as described
for the CD4 molecule by the gp120 molecule in HIV-infected patients
(20). In the NOD mouse, the defective T cell activation is
associated with an impairment of the p21ras/MAPK
pathway due to the reduced recruitment of the Grb2-sos
complex to the cell membrane (21). Although the mechanisms
might not be directly related, the same authors described the enhanced
engagement of the p59fyn-Cbl pathway and a
sequestration of the CD4-associated p56lck from
TCR/CD3 complexes (22). All these modifications of the
TCR/CD3-dependent activation cascade seem to locate a putative defect
during the early stages of NOD thymocyte activation. We have recently
characterized a cohort of diabetic patients in whom a similar defect in
TCR/CD3-mediated activation was documented (7). In this
study, a more systematic analysis of the early activation stages in
peripheral T cells was performed. The main result of the study shows
that the T cell hyporesponsiveness is positively correlated with a
reduced amount of p56lck. In some patients, this
deficit could be attributed to reduced levels of
p56lck mRNA.
| Materials and Methods |
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A group of 38 patients fulfilling the American Association of Diabetes classification criteria for type 1 diabetes (1) (age 36 ± 10 years, range 1556 years, 19 female and 19 male) was studied. They were all insulin treated, the mean diabetes duration was 12.9 ± 6.1 years, and the mean HbA1C level was 7.5 ± 0.9%. These patients did not receive any medication susceptible to influence lymphocyte function. A group of 13 type 2 diabetic patients (age 58.9 ± 8.5 years, range 4469 years, 10 male and 3 female, mean diabetes duration 11.7 ± 6.1 years, mean HbA1C 7.3 ± 1.6%) was also included. Seven of them were treated with insulin. A group of 24 healthy volunteers (age 34.5 ± 10 years, range 1753 years, 18 female and 6 male) without any familial history of autoimmunity was analyzed as controls. None of the diabetic patients or control subjects suffered at the time of the enrollment from any acute or chronic infectious disease. The local Ethics Committee approved the protocol of the study, and informed consent was obtained from the participating subjects. In the text, the type 1 diabetic patients will be referred as patients.
Cells and Abs
PBMCs were obtained by Ficoll-Hypaque density centrifugation
from heparinized peripheral venous blood (30 ml). Cells were rested
overnight in RPMI 1640 supplemented with 4 mM glutamine and 10%
heat-inactivated FBS, and the nonadherent cells were collected. This T
cell-enriched population contained >85% CD3+,
<3% CD14+, and <4%
CD19+ cells, as determined by FACScan flow
cytometric analysis (Becton Dickinson, Mountain View, CA), and the
percentage of CD3+ cells was comparable in
patient and control populations. Furthermore, in several cases, a more
complete cytometric analysis was performed using activation or
differentiation T cell markers defined by mAbs to CD25, CD69, CD62L,
CD45RA, CD45RO epitopes (Immunotech, Luminy, France/Becton Dickinson).
Results obtained from 1020 patients confirmed the absence of
preactivated T lymphocytes at the time of the assay, and no increase of
memory vs naive T cell populations over controls (data not shown). The
purified 289 anti-human CD3
mAb used for cell stimulation was
obtained from Dr. A. Moretta (Cancer Institute, Genova, Italy). mAbs or
polyclonal Abs to p56lck (3A5),
p59fyn (15), TCR
(6B10.2), and
phosphatidylinositol 3 (PI3)-kinase p85
(B-9) were purchased from
Santa Cruz Biotechnology (Tebu, France). Abs to LAT, PLC-
, or
phosphotyrosine residues 4G10 were purchased from Upstate Biotechnology
(Euromedex, France). The anti-ZAP70 rabbit polyclonal serum n°142
was provided by Dr. F. Vély (Center dImmunologie de
Marseille-Luminy, Marseille, France). HRP-conjugated anti-mouse or
anti-rabbit IgG Abs were purchased from Dako (Roskilde,
Denmark).
Immunoblotting, immunoprecipitations, and quantification
Cells were preincubated with 10 µg/ml of anti-CD3 mAb for
30 min on ice, prewarmed at 37°C for 2 min, and stimulated for
various times with 25 µg/ml of goat anti-mouse
F(ab')2 Ab (Coulter, Palo Alto, CA). After brief
centrifugation, cells were resuspended for 30 min at 4°C in lysis
buffer containing 1% Nonidet P-40, 1 mM HEPES, 50 mM NaCl, 50 mM NaF,
0.1 mM Na3VO4, 10 mM
iodoacetamid supplemented with a commercial cocktail of protease and
phosphatase inhibitors (Boehringer Mannheim, Indianapolis, IN). In some
experiments, Triton X-100 or Brij 96 replaced Nonidet P-40. Lysates
were clarified by centrifugation at 13,000 x g for 15
min at 4°C, and the protein concentration of cell lysate was
evaluated using the Bradford assay (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Richmond,
CA). Samples (corresponding to 25 µg of proteins) were boiled for 5
min in 2x reducing sample buffer. Alternatively, equivalent numbers of
cells were directly boiled in SDS buffer (2% SDS, 0.125 M Tris-HCl, pH
6.8, 20% glycerol, 1% 2-ME) to allow a complete solubilization and to
avoid in vitro proteolysis. Samples were resolved on 10% SDS-PAGE and
transferred on polyvinylidene difluoride membranes (Millipore, Bedford,
MA). After saturation in 0.1% Tween-20, 5% BSA, TBS, the membranes
were blotted using relevant primary and secondary Abs for 1 h, and
bound Abs were visualized by enhanced chemiluminescence (Amersham,
Arlington Heights, IL). For immunoprecipitation, 500 µg of precleared
Nonidet P-40 cell lysates were incubated with 5 µl of rabbit
polyclonal Ab or with 10 µg of mAb at 4° for 216 h, followed by
addition of 100 µl of 40% slurry of protein A/G agarose (Amersham
Pharmacia, Piscataway, NJ) for 1 h at 4°C. Agarose-bound immune
complexes were washed three times in lysis buffer, solubilized for 5
min in reducing sample buffer, loaded on 12.5% SDS-PAGE, and processed
as above. In some experiments, membranes were stripped in 100 mM 2-ME,
2% SDS, 62.5 mM Tris-HCl (pH 6.7) for 30 min at 56°C, washed
extensively, reblocked, and reprobed with appropriate control mAbs.
Autoradiogram quantification was performed by densitometry with a
BioImage analyzer (BioImage, Ann Arbor, MI). Because the amount of the
p85
subunit of PI3-kinase was comparable between all assays, it was
used in each experiment as the normalization standard to evaluate the
amount of p56lck, p59fyn,
LAT, and PLC-
1.
In vitro proliferation assays and flow cytometry
For TCR/CD3 activation, PBMCs were seeded at 5 x 105 cells/ml on anti-CD3 (10 µg/ml) or PBS-coated wells. For proliferation analysis, cells were pulsed on day 3 with 1 µCi of [3H]thymidine (Amersham) for the last 8 h, and harvested on glass fiber filters. Incorporation of radioactivity was measured using a Matrix Cell Counter (Packard, Zurich, Switzerland). For triplicate wells, the SEM was always <10% of the mean. For analysis of CD69 expression, cells were stimulated with anti-CD3 or with PMA (20 ng/ml) plus ionomycin (1 µg/ml), harvested at 24 h, and stained with an anti-CD69 PE mAb.
Confocal microscopy
Cells (106/ml) were added at room temperature on polylysine-coated coverslips (30 min), saturated with 0.2% BSA (10 min), fixed in 3.7% paraformaldehyde in PBS (20 min), washed, incubated in 50 mM PBS/NH4Cl (10 min), and permeabilized in Triton X-100 (5 min). Nonspecific staining was blocked by incubation in PBS/5% human serum (40 min). Samples were incubated with primary Ab diluted in PBS/5% FCS (20 min), washed, and fluorescently labeled with the secondary Ab (20 min). Additionally, the nuclei were stained with 7-amino-actinomycin D (diluted 1/40 in PBS; Sigma, St. Louis, MO) for 1 h. Cells were washed and mounted onto a glass slide. Optical sections (0.45 µm) were collected using a TCS 4D Leica laser-scanning confocal microscope (Heidelberg, Germany). Microscope settings were adjusted so that black level values were obtained with a mouse IgG1 isotypic control. Data are presented as individual optical sections.
Preparation of RNA, cDNA, and RT-PCR
RNA was isolated from 5 x 106 cells
using Trizol reagent (Life Technologies) and converted to cDNA using
oligo(dT) primers (Promega, Madison, WI) and Moloney murine leukemia
virus reverse transcriptase (Life Technologies). An aliquot of the
resulting cDNA (1/25) was used as template and subjected to the PCR in
a mixture containing 50 µM of each primer, 1 U of Taq DNA
polymerase (Life Technologies). p56lck cDNA was
amplified using three pairs of primers (Table I
: 1F/1533R, 551/831R, and 1135F/1533R).
The housekeeping gene
2-microglobulin was
amplified as an internal control (Table I
). PCR amplification products
were resolved in 1% agarose gel and revealed by ethidium bromide
staining.
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The unpaired Students t test was used to analyze
the differences between control and patient groups. Linear regression
and correlation coefficient (r) were determined to analyze
the relationship between p56lck relative levels
in detergent-soluble fractions and in whole cell extracts, as well as
between p56lck relative levels in
detergent-soluble fractions and PBMC proliferative response. The
2 test was used to estimate the statistical
significance of 2 x 2 contingency tables. Values of
p < 0.05 were considered as statistically significant
in all used tests.
| Results |
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Early events in TCR/CD3 stimulation result in the activation of
well-defined PTKs, which leads to the recruitment of downstream
effector proteins (17). To investigate the molecular basis
for the lymphocyte hyporesponsiveness from type 1 diabetic patients
(6, 7, 23), PBMC were activated with an anti-CD3 mAb,
and the global pattern of tyrosine phosphorylation was analyzed in cell
lysates. Differences were observed both in resting and activation
conditions. In resting state samples, phosphoproteins in the range of
30 and/or 70 kDa were detected in some type 1 diabetic patients (for
the 30-kDa band, compare lanes 1 and 5 in Fig. 1
A, lanes 1 and
4 in Fig. 1
B; for the 70-kDa band, compare
lanes 11 and 13 in Fig. 1
C). These
phosphoproteins, not necessarily associated, were observed in 47% of
the patients tested (9/19) vs 7% of control subjects (1/14)
(
2 = 6.18, p < 0.025). To
test the link with type 1 diabetes, the basal phosphorylation pattern
of type 2 diabetic patients was determined, and only one of seven
individuals presented a hyperphosphorylated profile. We also tested
whether insulin per se might be responsible for this result. No effect
of insulin was observed in a nondiabetic volunteer who has received
i.v. insulin as well as in type 2 diabetic patients treated by insulin
(data not shown). Alternatively, the presence of these
hyperphosphorylated polypeptides in resting samples from diabetic
patients might be due to variations in the relative percentage of
resting/activated/memory T lymphocytes. A cytofluorometric analysis of
most individuals performed at the time of the biochemical assay showed
no significant difference between the percentage of activated
(CD25+ or CD69+), or
resting vs memory
(CD62L+/CD45RA+/CD45RO+)
lymphocytes from diabetic and control individuals. However, we could
not formally exclude that some of these hyperphosphorylated bands might
be due to contaminating non-T cells in the assay.
|
was less efficiently or less durably
phosphorylated in 59% of the patients tested (10/17) vs 9% of control
subjects (1/11) (
2 = 6.93, p
< 0.01). Examples are shown in Fig. 1
2 = 13.69, p < 0.0005).
Examples are documented concerning hypophosphorylation (patient 18,
Fig. 1
,
LAT, and MAPK, which are early targets of TCR/CD3-associated PTKs, this
suggested a possible defect in PTK function and prompted us to analyze
the CD3
-associated ZAP70 molecule. Differential recruitment of phosphotyrosine proteins upon stimulation via TCR/CD3 in patients
Upon TCR/CD3 activation, the CD3
-chain is tyrosine
phosphorylated on immunotyrosine activation motifs by the
coreceptor-associated p56lck kinase
(26) and recruits the cytosolic ZAP70 kinase
(27, 28, 29), which then phosphorylates downstream targets
such as the adaptor protein LAT (30). The total level of
immunoprecipitable ZAP70 as well as the amount of its phosphorylated,
activated form was comparable between control subjects, type 1 and type
2 diabetic patients (Fig. 2
A).
In contrast, the amount of phosphorylated CD3
-chain coprecipitated
with ZAP70 appeared lower in most of the tested type 1 diabetic
patients (Fig. 2
A, p < 0.05). To
investigate the contribution of the TCR/CD3
-chain to this phenotype,
we determined the amount of unphosphorylated and phosphorylated form of
CD3
-chain under resting or activated conditions. We found no
reduction in the total amount of TCR/CD3
-chain immunoprecipitated by
an anti-CD3
mAb, although it was hypophosphorylated after
activation in patients (Fig. 2
B).
|
2 = 6.79,
p < 0.01). These observations incited us to explore
p56lck. Specific reduction of p56lck protein level in resting T cells from patients
In resting lymphocytes, the p56lck molecule
is predominantly localized at the cell membrane in interaction with the
CD4 and CD8 coreceptors (31). Upon recognition of
MHC/peptide complexes, the clustering of the TCR/CD3 and coreceptors in
microdomains allows the p56lck-mediated
phosphorylation of the CD3
-chain (32). Thus, the level
of several transducing molecules of the TCR/CD3-associated activation
pathway in unstimulated Nonidet P-40 cell lysates was investigated.
These effectors included the p56lck and
p59fyn src kinases, the LAT adaptor
protein, and more downstream effector molecules such as the PLC-
1
and PI3-kinase p85
molecules. As shown in Fig. 3
A, the amount of
p56lck protein was specifically decreased among
the tested molecules. This result was confirmed by a direct
immunoprecipitation of the p56lck molecule (Fig. 3
B). Quantification of the results obtained with a group of
10 patients and 9 control subjects showed a significant 2-fold
reduction (p < 0.05) for the
p56lck molecule (Fig. 3
C). The
detergent-soluble p56lck levels were then
evaluated in a larger cohort of 38 patients and 24 control subjects.
All patients showed a reduced level of p56lck
(mean decrease 46.4 ± 26.2%), but ranged from less than 20% to
subnormal levels (Fig. 3
D). To evaluate the reproducibility
of these results, five patients and three control subjects were tested
at least twice at 1- to 4-mo time intervals and results were equivalent
(data not shown).
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ratios obtained under
both experimental conditions were compared (Fig. 3The reduced p56lck level correlates with a lower proliferative response of PBMC from patients
The recruitment of p56lck is essential for
optimal T lymphocyte activation (33, 34). As previously
reported (7), the group of patients used in the present
study showed a classical reduction of T cell responsiveness (Fig. 4
A). This hyporesponsiveness
was positively correlated with the p56lck
relative levels (Fig. 4
B).
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Normal cellular localization of p56lck in T cells from patients
The failure to recruit p56lck in the
vicinity of the TCR/CD3 complex could be due to an abnormal subcellular
localization of the PTK. This possibility was tested by confocal
analysis of its distribution (Fig. 6
). In
these assays, the inhibitor I
B
was used as control of cytoplasmic
distribution (37). In both patients (n =
10) and control (n = 8) subjects,
p56lck exhibited a preferential association to T
cell plasma membrane (38, 39).
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To estimate the level of p56lck mRNA,
semiquantitative RT-PCR experiments were performed using total RNA
extracted from unstimulated PBMC and an optimized pair of primers
targeted to exons 1012 (Fig. 7
A). No significant variation
was observed with all tested control individuals (n =
13). In contrast, among 28 tested patients, 9 showed a dramatically
reduced level of p56lck mRNA compared with a
2-microglobulin standard (Fig. 7
B).
Results were confirmed several times for each sample, varying PCR cycle
numbers (Fig. 7
C) and using different pairs of primers (data
not shown). For a limited number of randomly selected patient and
control individuals, full-length cDNA were amplified by RT-PCR using a
pair of 5'- and 3'-end primers (Table I
, 1F/1533R), hence confirming
the expression of p56lck mRNA with the expected
size (data not shown). These results correlate with the low amount of
p56lck protein detected in the
detergent-extractable fraction, because eight of those nine patients
displayed less than 40% of normal levels and exhibited an impaired T
cell proliferation (Fig. 4
B).
|
Clinical features of the cohort of tested patients
The main clinical and molecular features of the patients as a
function of p56lck level are represented in
Table II
. The patients with the lowest
p56lck protein level did not differ from the
others in terms of gender, age, duration of the disease, and metabolic
control. This decrease was not associated with an earlier age of onset,
as the proportion of diabetes occurring before and after puberty was
similar in the two groups. The prevalence of autoantibodies directed to
either glutamic acid decarboxylon or tyrosine phosphatase islet antigen
2 was also comparable. However, it is worth mentioning that the HLADQB1
0201/0302 genotype was essentially observed in the group with low
p56lck protein.
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| Discussion |
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, LAT, and MAPK might be less efficiently
activated in most diabetic patients. In a conventional model of T cell
activation, p56lck phosphorylates CD3
, which
recruits ZAP70, leading to the activation of downstream effectors
(17, 44, 45). According to this model, we expect that a
deficiency in p56lck function should lead to a
reduced phosphorylation of CD3
, and consecutively a diminished
recruitment of ZAP70. In our study, we observed indeed a moderately but
significantly reduced amount of phosphorylated CD3
, whereas the
total amount of ZAP70 and of its phosphorylated form was comparable
between control and diabetic individuals. Interestingly, the amount of
the ZAP70-bound p56lck protein was lower in
samples from diabetic patients. Several reports showed that
p56lck acts as a downstream effector of ZAP70
(29, 46). It then activates the
p21ras/MAPK pathway via its SH3 domain
(47), leading to CD69 induction. Both CD69 expression
(this study and 6) and the MAPK pathway (42)
are affected in diabetes. Consequently, our results suggest that the
predominant effect of a deficiency in p56lck
function in diabetic individuals might affect late activation events
rather the immediate recruitment of ZAP70. Furthermore,
p56lck is also required for activation via CD2,
CD28, and the IL-2R, and thus other pathways might also be affected and
will require specific attention. In line with this hypothesis, a defect
in IL-2 and soluble IL-2R secretion has already been reported in type 1
diabetic patients (23). The mechanisms explaining p56lck reduction are most probably complex and heterogeneous. At the protein level among 38 tested patients, this deficit is experimentally defined by an at least 2-fold reduction in the amount of basal detergent-extractable p56lck for 66% of patients. Because p56lck is rapidly consumed after TCR/CD3 triggering (48), one can speculate that the deficit in type 1 diabetes could be consecutive to the apparent preactivated state observed in some patients. However, our survey (n = 14) excluded this hypothesis, as global hyperphosphorylation in resting state samples did not correlate with low p56lck protein level. Alternatively, in a model of T cell desensitization induced by soluble gp120 from HIV, a cytoskeletal sequestration has been documented that decreased the amount of membrane-bound p56lck (20). Our confocal analysis confirmed the membrane localization of the kinase. Indeed, in resting T cells, most of the available p56lck is concentrated in microdomains, which gather several effector molecules of the TCR/CD3-transduction machinery (32, 38). A relative resistance to the solubilization by mild detergents characterizes these microdomains. All the results obtained with Nonidet P-40 lysates were confirmed with detergents that dissociate microdomains or whole cell extracts. Furthermore, the amount of the control p59fyn tyrosine kinase as well as that of several other effector molecules involved in the T cell activation pathway were not affected.
Another explanation of a low recovery of p56lck
might be linked to modifications of the cell membrane induced by the
metabolic disorder of diabetes. Enrichment of membrane with exogenous
polyunsaturated fatty acids displaces p56lck
from microdomains (49). In type 1 diabetes, the
-6 and
-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids present in the plasma membrane of
erythrocytes and platelets have been shown to be in normal or slightly
increased proportion (50). However, a metabolic cause for
the decrease of p56lck is unlikely. First, there
was no correlation between p56lck amount and the
HbA1c value, representative of the quality of metabolic control.
Second, p56lck levels observed in lymphocytes of
type 2 diabetic patients were apparently normal despite hyperglycemia.
Finally, the normality of the GPI-anchored protein
p59fyn or LAT confirms that modifications of
microdomains are not involved in the reduction of the amount of
p56lck. Thus, one can conclude that the lowered
expression of p56lck is specific of type 1
diabetes and correlated with the lower proliferative response.
For 19 of the 28 patients tested for p56lck mRNA expression, we found no obvious explanation for the reduced amount of p56lck. In contrast, in eight patients, this reduced level was associated with a strong diminution in the amount of p56lck transcripts. The regulation of p56lck transcription is controlled by several independent mechanisms. The p56lck gene is transcribed from two widely separated promoters (51, 52). The type I (proximal) promoter is preferentially used in early fetal thymocytes and in nonlymphoid neoplasms, while the type II (distal) promoter is almost exclusively used in mature thymocytes and in normal mature T cells. In addition, an alternative splicing produces two type II (IIA and IIB) transcripts (53). The type IIA transcript is the most abundant p56lck isoform in mature T cells, and the minor type IIB mRNA lacks exon 1' encoding for the N-terminal CD4 and CD8 interaction domain (54). Preliminary RT-PCR experiments designed to specifically amplify 5' untranslated regions showed the expected preferential usage of sequences derived from the distal promoter region in the tested control and type 1 diabetic individuals (data not shown). These results tend to exclude an obvious deficiency in promoter or exon usage.
Taken in the context of diabetes, the reduction of
p56lck level could not be related to any obvious
clinical feature, but our cohort of patients is too small to allow any
formal conclusion (Table II
). Our results suggest that for a given
patient, the pattern of p56lck expression is
time independent because patients studied several months after the
initial evaluation presented the same response. The only putative
correlation was found with the HLA haplotype of patients. From the
available information, 7 of 19 patients with low
p56lck vs 1 of 9 patients with subnormal
p56lck level carried the HLA DQ
1 0201/0302
genotype that is highly associated with the appearance of diabetes
(55). These preliminary results would suggest that the
development of the autoimmune repertoire in the context of distinct
self MHC molecules could be strongly dependent upon the amount of
available p56lck in thymocytes. Because the
amount of p56lck plays a significant role in the
establishment of a functional T cell repertoire (34, 56),
these results might suggest that the deficiency observed in peripheral
T cells might also be detectable in early thymic development.
Alteration of p56lck has also been found in
other pathological situations, such as leprosy (57),
cancer (58), rheumatoid arthritis (59), and
lupus erythematosus (60). In cancer, this reduction was
found to be secondary to the development of the tumors, partially
reversible in vitro upon normal mitogenic stimulation and correlated
with the clinical outcome (61). Nevertheless, in these
pathologies, a more global reduction of molecules involved in signal
transduction was observed, including the CD3
and ZAP70 molecules.
This contrasts with the specific reduction observed in type 1 diabetes,
and we favor the possibility that the deficiency in
p56lck is a primary event. Interestingly, we
have observed this phenotype in a patient before the onset of clinical
type 1 diabetes. A systematic study among diabetes families and on
larger cohorts might help to resolve these issues.
The functional consequences of this reduction in the amount of p56lck are of potential interest. One possibility would be that the lowered p56lck expression is preexisting before diabetes onset and is detectable among thymocytes. Several experimental arguments show that, depending upon the stage of maturation of the T lymphocyte studied, src kinases are differentially engaged in the T cell activation cascade. During intrathymic maturation, the preferential association of p56lck with the TCR/CD3 is required for the appropriate adjustment of threshold responses to autoantigens (56). Another possible consequence of this deficit would be a skewing of T cell responses in the periphery. Indeed, differentiation toward the Th2 lineage requires high levels of recruited p56lck kinase, and the introduction of a dominant-negative p56lck transgene under the control of the distal promoter to target its expression toward mature T lymphocytes inhibits Th2 cell development (62, 63). It has been proposed that the progression toward diabetes in the NOD mouse model might be associated with a relative reduction of the Th2/Th1 cell ratio (5, 56, 64, 65). Thus, the lowered p56lck expression could be the consequence of the Th1 bias in periphery, or more importantly a direct cause of the impaired Th2 lymphocyte differentiation. More refined experiments are required to formally prove this putative link but, for the first time, the deficient expression in the amount of a src kinase correlated with an impairment in T cell activation can be directly associated to the development of a type 1 diabetes in human.
| Acknowledgments |
|---|
| Footnotes |
|---|
2 Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Philippe Naquet, Centre dImmunologie, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique de Marseille Luminy, Case 906, Marseille, Cedex 9, 13288 France. ![]()
3 Abbreviations used in this paper: NOD, nonobese diabetic; LAT, linker for activation of T cells; MAPK, mitogen-activated protein kinase; PI3, phosphatidylinositol 3; PLC, phospholipase C; PTK, protein tyrosine kinase. ![]()
Received for publication March 29, 2000. Accepted for publication August 17, 2000.
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