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Departments of
*
Cancer Biology and
Immunology, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH 44195; and
Institute of Molecular Biology, University of Zurich, Honggerberg, Zurich, Switzerland
| Abstract |
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and IFN-
. Despite
these findings, Pkr-/- mice have no
overt immunological phenotype. Here we tested the role of PKR in
cellular immunity by determining the induction and elicitation of
contact hypersensitivity in Pkr-/-
mice, a model of T cell-mediated immunity. When compared with wild
type, the magnitude of contact hypersensitivity responses in
Pkr-/- mice were 2-fold higher and
of extended duration. This was also observed when naive recipients of
immune CD8+ T cells from sensitized
Pkr-/- and CD4+ T cells
from sensitized wild-type Pkr+/+ or
Pkr-/- mice were challenged with
hapten, indicating a regulatory defect intrinsic to the
CD8+ T cell population. Isolated lymph node T cells from
Pkr-/- mice were hyperproliferative
during Con A-mediated stimulation. These results implicate PKR for the
first time in the growth control of mature T lymphocytes and give
insight into the negative regulation of CD8+ T
cell-mediated immune responses. | Introduction |
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B,
IFN regulatory factor-1 (IRF-1), and activating transcription factor-2
and regulates STAT1 serine phosphorylation, all major transcription
factors in the immune system (7, 8, 9, 10, 11). PKR has been
suggested to mediate the surface expression of CD4, and its activity is
regulated by IL-3 and IFN-
(8, 12, 13). PKR
gene-deleted mice (Pkr-/-) show
increased susceptibility to virus infection and are not protected
against viral infection by IFN-
(14), suggesting a
defect in IFN-
-mediated cellular immune function. Furthermore, PKR
plays a positive role in TNF-
and Fas-mediated apoptosis, and may
thus play a role in peripheral tolerance (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22).
Unlike IRF-1 or Fas mutant mice, Pkr-/-
mice have no overt immunological phenotype. However, because they
exhibit a signaling defect in response to IFN-
, we tested the
ability of Pkr-/- mice to mount cellular
immune responses by analyzing Ag-specific and IFN-
-mediated
responses in contact hypersensitivity (CHS). CHS is a T cell-mediated
response in sensitized individuals to epicutaneously applied hapten
(23, 24). Challenge with the sensitizing hapten results in
an inflammatory response characterized by edema and swelling of the
skin. After 48 h, the response is rapidly down-regulated and the
swelling regresses. Results from clinical and experimental studies have
supported a role for CD4+ and
CD8+ T cells as the effector cells of the
response (25, 26, 27). Use of either Ab-mediated depletion of
CD4+ vs CD8+ T cells or
mice with targeted deletions of class II MHC genes have implicated
CD8+ T cells as the primary effector cells in CHS
responses to the model haptens 2,4-dinitro-1-fluorobenzene (DNFB) and
oxazolone (27, 28, 29). These studies are supported by results
from this laboratory demonstrating that most of the IFN-
producing
cells induced by epicutaneous sensitization with DNFB or oxazolone are
hapten-specific CD8+ T cells
(30, 31, 32, 33). In contrast, the hapten-specific
CD4+ T cell compartment is largely skewed to
IL-4, IL-5, and IL-10 producing cells. Hapten-primed
CD4+ T cells are essential for down-regulation of
CHS, because sensitized mice devoid of CD4+ T
cells respond to hapten challenge with exaggerated and sustained
swelling of the skin (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33).
Here we report that PKR plays a negative role in the regulation of CHS, as Pkr-/- mice react with exaggerated and sustained cutaneous swelling. We further show that the defect is intrinsic to the CD8+ T cell population and that PKR plays a role in the negative regulation of T cell proliferation. Our results implicate, for the first time, PKR in the negative control of mature T lymphocytes.
| Materials and Methods |
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Pkr-/- and wild-type mice (Pkr+/+) on a 129 SvEv background are described elsewhere (14). Adult female mice of 810 wk old were used throughout these studies.
Sensitization and elicitation of CHS
Groups of three mice were sensitized by two daily paintings (days 0 and +1) with 25 µl of 0.25% DNFB (Sigma, St. Louis, MO) on the shaved abdomen and 5 µl on the footpads. Sensitized and unsensitized control animals were challenged on day +5 by applying 10 µl of 0.2% DNFB to each side of each ear. Ear swelling was measured in a blinded manner 24 h after challenge with an engineers micrometer (Mitutoyo Precision USA, Elk Grove Village, IL). The magnitude of ear swelling is given as the mean increase of each group of three sensitized or nonsensitized mice (i.e., six ears) ± SEM.
Mice were depleted of CD4+ or CD8+ T cells by injection with 100 µg anti-CD4 mAb GK1.5 or anti-CD8 mAb YTS 169 on three consecutive days before DNFB sensitization as previously described (30, 31, 32, 33). Treated sentinel mice were used to evaluate the efficiency of CD4+ or CD8+ T cell depletion by Ab staining and flow cytometry analysis of spleen and lymph node cells (LNC) and was always >95% when compared with cells from control, rat IgG-treated mice.
Transfer of CHS
CHS was passively transferred by LNC from sensitized mice. Donor Pkr-/- and Pkr+/+ were sensitized with DNFB on days 0 and +1, and on day +4 skin draining LNC suspensions were prepared. For in vitro depletion of CD4+ T cells, 1 x 107 LNC/ml were incubated with 10 µg/ml of GK1.5 Ab and depleted with magnetic anti-rat IgG-beads (Dynal, Lake Success, NY). A total of 2.5 x 107 cells were injected into the retro-orbital sinus of naive wild-type (Pkr+/+) recipient mice, the mice were challenged immediately on the ears with 0.2% DNFB, and the CHS response was measured as above.
CHS was also passively transferred using CD4+ T cell- and CD8+ T cell-enriched LNC populations from DNFB sensitized Pkr-/- and Pkr+/+ mice. To prepare the donors, mice were depleted of CD4+ or CD8+ T cells before hapten sensitization. On day +4, LNC suspensions were prepared and 1 x 107 cell aliquots of the CD4+ and CD8+ T cell populations were cotransferred i.v. to naive wild-type recipients for hapten challenge as above.
Cytokine ELISA
Mice were depleted of CD4+ or
CD8+ T cells by injection of specific Ab on 3
consecutive days before sensitization with DNFB. On day +4, LNC from
DNFB-sensitized, and as a negative control from unsensitized, mice were
prepared and stimulated to produce cytokines by culture on anti-CD3
mAb-coated wells. The 96-well U-bottom tissue culture plates were
precoated with 30 µl/well anti-CD3 mAb 145.2C11 (25 µg/ml) for
90 min at 37°C. As a negative control, wells were coated with an Ab
to a Vß not expressed by 129 SvEv T cells, anti-Vß17a mAb
KJ23a. The wells were washed and 2 x 105
LNC were delivered to each well in 200 µl complete RPMI 1640 medium
and cultured in a 7% CO2 incubator at 37°C.
After 48 h, the culture supernatants were harvested and assayed
for IFN-
and IL-4 production by sandwich ELISA as previously
described (30, 31, 32, 33).
Flow cytometry
A total of 2.5 x 105 LNC from immune mice 4 days after sensitization were cultured in 200 µl of complete RPMI 1640 (Life Technologies, Grand Island, NY) on plate-bound anti-CD3 Ab (30, 31, 32, 33) for 72 h and stained with FITC-labeled anti-CD8, PE-labeled anti-CD4, or biotin-labeled anti-Fas Abs (BD Pharmingen, San Diego, CA), followed by cyanin-labeled anti-biotin Ab (Becton-Dickinson, San Jose, CA). Cells were analyzed by flow cytometry using CellQuest software (Becton-Dickinson), and Fas-expression was plotted vs either the PE or the FITC-positive T cell population.
Evaluation of cell death
A total of 2 x 106/ml LNC was grown
in complete RPMI 1640 for 48 h in the presence of 2 µg/ml of Con
A (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO), washed with 10 mg/ml
-methylmannoside and cultured in 50 IU/ml of IL-2 (Life
Technologies) to predispose the T cells to activation-induced cell
death (AICD) as previously described (21). Cells (> 98%
T cells) were depleted of CD4+ T cells as
described above and 5 x 104
CD8+ T cells grown in triplicate in the presence
or absence of plate-bound anti-CD3 Ab. From 48 to 120 h,
triplicates were pooled and stained with FITC-labeled anti-CD8 Ab
and propidium iodide (PI, Sigma). Cells were analyzed by flow
cytometry, plotting PI vs FITC-positive CD8+ T
cell population.
Proliferation assay
Total LNC were stimulated with Con A and IL-2 as above and 5 x 104 cells grown in triplicate in medium in the presence of 10 or 50 IU/ml of IL-2. At various times, cultures were pulsed with 1 µCi [3H]thymidine and 16 h later were harvested onto fiber filter mats, and the amount of 3H incorporation was determined by liquid scintillation counting.
In experiments testing the proliferation of DNFB-immune T cells,
cocultures of 2 x 105
CD4+ or CD8+ T cells and
106 DNFB-labeled, or as a negative control
unlabeled, stimulator spleen cells were established in triplicate in
the wells of 96-well U-bottom culture plates. Spleen cells from
Pkr-/- mice were labeled with 100
µg/ml DNFB for 30 min at 37°C and given 2000 rad
-irradiation
before use as stimulator cells. After 48 h, cultures were pulsed
with 1 µCi/well [3H]thymidine and harvested
1820 h later and 3H incorporation was
determined as above.
| Results |
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After sensitization and challenge with DNFB, the magnitude and
duration of the inflammatory immune response (i.e., ear swelling) in
wild-type Pkr+/+ and
Pkr-/- was compared. In the absence of
prior sensitization, hapten challenge resulted in a slight swelling in
both sets of mice (Fig. 1
A).
After hapten sensitization and challenge, the ear swelling response
in wild-type mice was of limited magnitude and duration. By
contrast, sensitized Pkr-/- mice
responded to challenge with exaggerated and sustained swelling (Fig. 1
A), approaching the level of unregulated response observed
in animals depleted of CD4+ T cells before
sensitization with DNFB (Fig. 1
B). These results suggest a
defect in the down-regulation of the CHS response in the
Pkr-/- mice.
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, but increased IL-4, production by CD4+
T cell from Pkr-/- mice
The exaggerated CHS response observed in
Pkr-/- mice suggested that these mice
produce normal, if not elevated, levels of IFN-
, one of the
mediators of CHS. However, following in vitro re-stimulation of immune
CD8+ T cells from sensitized
Pkr-/- mice by culture on anti-CD3
mAb-coated wells, there was no significant increase in IFN-
production (Fig. 2
). Moreover, we
observed 2-fold increased production of the cytokine IL-4 by immune
CD4+ T cell from
Pkr-/- mice. As previously reported,
culture of T cells from naive mice on anti-CD3 mAb-coated wells
produced low to nondetectable levels of IFN-
and IL-4 (Fig. 2
) and
culture of immune T cells from sensitized
Pkr+/+ and
Pkr-/- mice on
anti-Vß17a-coated wells produced nondetectable levels of the
cytokines (data not shown). It was also possible that the different ear
swelling responses observed in Pkr+/+ and
Pkr-/- mice to DNFB sensitization and
challenge were due to temporal or sustained differences in IFN-
production. However, no differences in anti-CD3 mAb stimulated
IFN-
production by CD8+ T cells from
DNFB-sensitized Pkr+/+ and
Pkr-/- mice were observed when culture
supernatants were removed at various times and tested for IFN-
production (Fig. 3
).
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CHS can be elicited in naive mice by adoptive transfer of
CD8+ T cells from sensitized mice
(29, 30, 31, 32). To further compare the immune function of
CD8+ T cells from
Pkr+/+ and
Pkr-/- mice, LNC were prepared from
sensitized wild-type Pkr+/+ and
Pkr-/-mice, depleted of
CD4+ T cells and injected into naive wild-type
mice. The recipient mice were ear challenged with DNFB and the ear
swelling response was measured 24 h later. As expected, we found
transfer of normal CHS responses to naive wild-type recipients by
immune CD8+ T cells from wild-type mice (Fig. 5
A). In contrast,
CD8+ T cells from sensitized
Pkr-/- mice were able to confer
exaggerated and sustained swelling to naive wild-type mice. When immune
CD8+ T cells mice were cotransferred with immune
CD4+ T cells from either
Pkr+/+ or
Pkr-/- mice to naive wild-type mice the
responses to hapten challenge were again exaggerated (Fig. 5
C). In contrast, when immune CD8+ T
cells from wild-type mice were cotransferred with immune
CD4+ T cells from either
Pkr+/+ or
Pkr-/- mice, responses were again of
short duration (Fig. 5
B). These results indicated that the
excessive CHS response observed in
Pkr-/- mice is intrinsic to the effector
CD8+ T cell population and not to the regulatory
CD4+ T cell population.
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Activated peripheral CD4+ and
CD8+ T cells are eliminated by Fas or
TNF-
-mediated apoptosis during immune responses. Both apoptotic
pathways are deficient in mouse embryo fibroblasts from
Pkr-/- mice, the defect in the
Fas-mediated pathway being due to a failure to up-regulate Fas
(17). Therefore, we tested the up-regulation of Fas on T
cells from sensitized Pkr-/- mice
following in vitro stimulation, as well as AICD, under conditions which
have been described to induce Fas and TNF-
-mediated apoptosis
(21). We detected no deficiency in Fas up-regulation on
the surface of the T cells (Fig. 6
A) and found no difference in
cell death of stimulated primed CD8+ T cells from
Pkr-/- mice (Fig. 6
B).
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PKR has been shown to have a strong anti-proliferative effect,
and constitutive overexpression of wild-type PKR is growth inhibitory
(4). Accordingly, we hypothesized that hyperproliferation
of immune effector CD8+ T cells could induce
exaggerated CHS, by continuous proliferation and cytokine secretion. To
test this, lymph node T cells were activated with Con A for 48 h,
grown in the presence of IL-2 (10 or 50 U/ml) for 48 h, and
analyzed for proliferation. Although T cells from wild-type mice cease
to proliferate after 48 h in 10 U/ml of IL-2, probably due to IL-2
withdrawal-induced apoptosis, T cells from
Pkr-/- mice continue to proliferate
(Fig. 7
). In the presence of 50 U/ml of
IL-2, wild-type T cells cease to proliferate after 96 h, whereas
Pkr-/- T cells continue to proliferate,
indicating that PKR may play a role in the regulation of primary T cell
proliferation.
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| Discussion |
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signaling has
been linked to a role for PKR in the activation of the transcription
factors NF-
B and IRF-1. However, unlike IRF-1 and NF-
B
gene-deleted mice, Pkr-/- mice appear
healthy and have normal CD4+ and
CD8+ T cell counts. Here we describe the immune
response of Pkr-/- mice during
CHS, which is an IFN-
-mediated cellular immune
response.
We show here that Pkr-/- mice display an
exaggerated inflammatory response to Ag challenge. Although CHS is
largely an IFN-
-mediated response, IFN-
production by immune
CD8+ T cells from
Pkr-/- mice was not significantly
increased. Rather we observed elevated IL-4 production by
CD4+ T cells from
Pkr-/- mice. Although the role of IL-4
in CHS is controversial, it is necessary for the second phase of the
effector stage, as IL-4-deleted mice show decreased response after
48 h (34). Therefore, increased production of IL-4 by
immunized CD4+ T cells may play a partial role in
the excessive CHS we observe in Pkr-/-
mice. Moreover, we showed here that exaggerated CHS can be transferred
to naive animals after adoptive transfer of immune
CD8+ T cells from
Pkr-/- mice and that this transfer is
not negatively regulated by CD4+ T cells from
sensitized wild-type Pkr+/+ or
Pkr-/- mice.
It is probable that effector CD8+ T cells in CHS
are eliminated by AICD through TNF-
or Fas-mediated apoptosis.
However, we found no defect in Fas up-regulation on
CD8+ T cells from
Pkr-/- mice after TCR stimulation, nor
any defect in AICD after primary stimulation followed by secondary
stimulation or IL-2 withdrawal. On the contrary, we observed increased
proliferation of stimulated T cells from
Pkr-/- mice, suggesting that after
primary stimulation, these cells are not down-regulated, but continue
to grow.
PKR has been shown to have a strong anti-proliferative effect, mediated through inhibition of protein synthesis (3). Results shown in this report suggest for the first time a role for PKR in the negative growth control of T cells. This could result from direct inhibition of protein synthesis or may be indirect, through a defect resulting in increased production of IL-4, which has a growth-promoting role for activated T cells (35). In this regard, it is interesting to note here, that CD4+ T cells from IRF-1-deleted mice also produce increased levels of IL-4 in the context of an infection (36). Because the PKR activator dsRNA is produced during viral replication, it is possible that in the context of viral infection, PKR plays a role in IL-4 regulation, upstream of IRF-1.
Treatment of cells with IFN-
results in activation of PKR
(8) and may thus be the activator of PKR in the context of
CHS. Although CHS is a noninfectious model, our results suggest that
PKR may play a critical role in the down-regulation of the immune
response. Taken together, our results shed light on the negative
regulation of CHS effector cells, suggesting that these cells are not
only eliminated by AICD after secondary activation, but may also be
down-regulated in their ability to proliferate shortly after primary
activation, limiting the number of available effector cells.
| Acknowledgments |
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| Footnotes |
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2 Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Bryan R. G. Williams, Department of Cancer Biology NN10, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, 9500 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44195. ![]()
3 Abbreviations used in this paper: PKR, dsRNA-activated kinase; AICD, activation-induced cell death; CHS, contact hypersensitivity; DNFB, 2,4-dinitro-1-fluorobenzene; IRF-1, IFN regulatory factor 1; LNC, lymph node cells; PI, propidium iodide. ![]()
Received for publication October 13, 2000. Accepted for publication September 26, 2000.
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