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The Journal of Immunology, 2001, 166: 5515-5521.
Copyright © 2001 by The American Association of Immunologists

IL-12 Enhances CD8 T Cell Homeostatic Expansion1

William C. Kieper2, Martin Prlic, Clint S. Schmidt, Matthew F. Mescher and Stephen C. Jameson3

Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Minnesota Center for Immunology, Minneapolis, MN 55455


    Abstract
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 
The size of the T lymphocyte pool is maintained by regulation of T cell production, proliferation, and survival. Under the pressure of a T lymphopenic environment, mature naive T cells begin to proliferate in the absence of Ag, a process called homeostatic expansion. Homeostatic expansion involves TCR recognition of self peptide/MHC ligands, but less is known about the soluble factors that regulate this process. Here we show that IL-12 dramatically enhanced the homeostatic proliferation of CD8 T cells. In contrast, IL-2 had no beneficial effect on homeostatic expansion and, in fact, inhibited T cell expansion induced by IL-12. Using gene-targeted mice, we showed that IL-12 acted directly on the T cells to enhance homeostatic expansion, but that IL-12 cannot override the requirement for TCR interaction with self peptide/MHC ligands in homeostatic expansion. These data indicate that inflammatory cytokines may modulate T cell homeostasis after lymphopenia and have implications for regulation of the T cell repertoire and autoimmunity.


    Introduction
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 
Recent data have shown that restoration of normal T cell numbers in a lymphopenic animal involves the proliferation of naive T cells. This process, called homeostatic expansion, does not involve Ag recognition, but nevertheless requires TCR recognition of self peptide/MHC ligands (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). Some groups have suggested that the same self-peptide/MHC ligands required for thymic-positive selection are also important for homeostatic expansion in the periphery (1, 2, 8, 9), although other reports argue against this correlation (10). Indeed, there is some evidence that homeostatic expansion can occur (albeit more slowly) even in the absence of a conventional TCR ligand (11). These data suggest that other factors beyond the TCR are involved in homeostatic expansion.

Accumulating evidence indicates that cytokines play a critical role in driving homeostatic expansion. We have shown that there is a critical role for IL-7 in CD8+ T cell homeostatic expansion and survival (12), in keeping with the pivotal role of this cytokine at multiple stages of T cell life (13, 14). In contrast, IL-2, which dominates regulation of Ag-driven T cell responses, has been reported not to be required for homeostatic expansion (6), although the impact of exogenous IL-2 on homeostatic expansion has yet to be reported. Thus, the role of cytokines in homeostatic expansion vs Ag-driven activation are notably different.

Here we study the impact of supplementary cytokines on CD8 T cell homeostatic expansion. Two cytokines with well-documented effects on CD8 T cell proliferation and differentiation were tested: IL-2 and IL-12. Although IL-2 is a prototypic T cell growth factor, the proinflammatory cytokine IL-12 is implicated in augmenting both CD8 T cell growth and differentiation (15, 16, 17, 18, 19). Indeed, recent evidence indicates IL-12 can provide a critical third signal, along with Ag and IL-2, to activate naive CD8 T cells in vitro (18) and has an adjuvant-like effect in activating CD8 T cell responses to peptide Ag in vivo (19). We report here that IL-12, but not IL-2, enhances homeostatic expansion, leading to amplification of functional T cells. The response to IL-12 is evidently T cell autonomous, because it has its effects even when IL-12R expression is exclusively on the T cells. These data argue that cells undergoing homeostatic expansion are receptive to the proinflammatory cytokine IL-12, and that this factor can modify the size, phenotype, and reactivity of the homeostatically expanded pool.


    Materials and Methods
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 
Mice

OT-I TCR transgenic mice and OT-I.PL mice (expressing the Thy1.1 allele) have been described previously (4, 20). Mice deficient in IL-12 p40 subunit (IL-12o/o), IL-12R {beta}1 subunit (IL-12Rco/o), and recombinase-activating gene-1 (RAG-1o/o) were obtained from The Jackson Laboratory (Bar Harbor, ME) and were maintained in specific pathogen-free conditions throughout the experiments. Some mice were subjected to sublethal irradiation (700 rad) 1–2 days before T cell transfer. Some mice were thymectomized, allowed to recover (for at least 2 wk), and then sublethally irradiated at least 2 wk before adoptive transfer.

All thymectomized and irradiated mice were maintained on antibiotic water (polymixin B sulfate and neomycin sulfate) and under specific pathogen-free conditions throughout the course of the experiment.

Cytokines

Recombinant mouse IL-12 was obtained from Genetics Institute (Cambridge, MA), and recombinant mouse IL-2 was obtained from R&D Systems (Minneapolis, MN). Cytokines were injected i.p. on days 1, 2, and 3 post-T cell transfer with IL-12 (1 µg, equivalent to 2700 ± 1200 U) and IL-2 (2000 IU/injection), as used previously (19, 21). Cytokines were injected in 100 µl of PBS with 1% mouse serum, and this vector was also used as the control.

Adoptive transfer

Single-cell suspensions were prepared from lymph nodes of donor mice and CD8+ T cells (from OT-I or OT-I-Thy1.1 donor animals) or total T cells (from normal C57BL/6 donors). T cell purification (by negative selection) involved Cellect columns (Cytovax Biotechnologies, Edmonton, Canada) or magnetic cell sorting using MACS microbeads (Miltenyi Biotec, Auburn, CA). For OT-I, the purification was through elimination of CD4 T cells and B cells. For normal B6 donors, only B cells were eliminated. The purity of the T cells ranged from 85 to 95% pure (established by flow cytometric analysis). In some cases naive (CD44low) OT-I CD8 cells were purified. OT-I lymph node cells were depleted of adherent cells (90-min incubation on tissue culture-treated flasks at 37°C) and labeled with FITC-coupled anti-B220, CD4, and CD44 (all obtained from PharMingen, San Diego, CA) Abs (0.125 µg of anti-B220 and CD4/1 x 106 cells, 0.04 µg of anti-CD44/1 x 106 cells). Anti-FITC microbeads (Miltenyi Biotec) were used to negatively select CD44low, CD8 cells with the MACS system. Cells were >95% pure (established by flow cytometric analysis).

Cells were labeled before or after purification with CFSE (Molecular Probes, Eugene, OR) essentially as previously described (4, 22). Briefly, pooled lymph node cells were suspended at a concentration of 1–5 x 107/ml in HBSS. After warming to 37°C, CFSE was added at a concentration of 0.5–5 µM for 10 min with occasional mixing, followed by addition of ice-cold RPMI medium containing 10% serum and cell recovery by centrifugation. Purified donor cells were suspended in PBS and injected i.v. into the tail vein of recipient mice. During multiple experiments 1–3 million cells were injected into irradiated recipients, and 1–5 million were injected into unirradiated recipients. Similar results were obtained regardless of the transferred cell number.

In some cases mice were immunized with OVA peptide (OVAp),4 with or without injection of IL-12 treatment. OVAp was given as two injections (25 µg of peptide/injection) administered s.c. on the lower and upper back on day 14 only. IL-12 (1 µg/injection) and PBS were given i.p. on days 14, 15, and 16, and the mice were harvested on day 17.

Flow cytometry

Recipient mice were sacrificed at the time points indicated, and single-cell suspensions were prepared separately from spleen and a pool of major lymph nodes. Lymph node and spleen cells were then stained with combinations of the following Abs: anti-CD8 conjugated to PE or allophycocyanin, anti-Thy1.1-bio, anti-CD44-PE, anti-CD4-allophycocyanin, or anti-Thy1.1-PerCP and followed with either streptavidin-TriColor or streptavidin-PerCP (all obtained from PharMingen). The cells were analyzed with a Becton Dickinson FACSCalibur (Mountain View, CA) using both CellQuest (Becton Dickinson) and FLOWJO (TreeStar, San Carlos, CA) software.

CTL killing assay

The cytolytic potential of cells was tested in a 51Cr release assay, essentially as previously described (23). Briefly, EL4 tumor cells were labeled with [51Cr]sodium chromate with or without the addition of 10 µM OVAp. OT-I.PL cells were recovered from lymph nodes of adoptively transferred (Thy 1.2) hosts by positive selection over magnetic columns after staining the cells with anti-Thy1.1 Abs (2.5 µg of HIS51-bio Ab/1 x 107 cells) and streptavidin-conjugated microbeads (Miltenyi Biotech). Target cells were washed and incubated with titrated numbers of effector cells in a 4-h assay. Percentages of OT-I cells in the effector population were calculated from flow cytometric analysis of a sample of the lymph node preparation, and the data are presented as adjusted E:T cell ratios to reflect this calculation. Lysis on EL4 cells without OVAp was <5%


    Results
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 
Exogenous IL-12 directly enhances naive CD8 T cell homeostatic expansion

OT-I transgenic CD8 T cells were adoptively transferred into irradiated wild-type B6 recipients. The recipients received injections of PBS, IL-2, IL-12, or a combination of IL-2 plus IL-12, and the impact on OT-I homeostatic expansion was monitored by CFSE dye dilution and by the total cell numbers of the transferred cells.

Exogenous IL-12 greatly enhanced OT-I proliferation, as measured by CFSE dilution (Fig. 1GoA) and by total number of OT-I T cells recovered from lymph node (Fig. 1GoB). In contrast, we observed no effect on OT-I homeostatic expansion of supplementary IL-2 alone (Fig. 1Go). However, supplementary IL-2 did change the response to IL-12; coinjection of IL-12 plus IL-2 resulted in less accumulation of OT-I cells than IL-12 administration alone (Fig. 1GoB) and a slight reduction of proliferation (Fig. 1GoA). The basis by which IL-12 might alter sensitivity to IL-2 is addressed later.



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FIGURE 1. Effects of IL-2, IL-7, and IL-12 on homeostatic proliferation. CD8+ T cells were purified from OT-I.PL donors, labeled with CFSE, and transferred into irradiated C57BL6 recipients. On days 1, 2, and 3 post-transfer the recipients received i.p. injections of PBS, IL-2 (2000 IU/day), or IL-12 (1 µg/day). Lymph nodes and spleens were harvested from recipients on day 7 post-transfer and analyzed by FACS for both CFSE expression (A) and total cell numbers (B; with SD shown as error bars). The data presented here are gated on live Thy1.1+/CD8+ T lymphocytes obtained independently from the lymph nodes of three mice per condition and are representative of two independent experiments.

 
Because IL-12 is well known to stimulate NK cells as well as T cells (15), it was important to test whether the IL-12 acted directly on the OT-I T cells or indirectly via stimulation of host cells. To differentiate between these two possibilities, we studied the effect of exogenous IL-12 on OT-I homeostatic expansion in both wild-type and IL-12-Rc{beta}1-deficient (24) hosts. In the latter recipients, host T and NK cells are unable to respond to IL-12 (24), and thus only the donor OT-I cells would be able to respond to its presence. As shown in Fig. 2Go, IL-12 augmented the proliferation of OT-I cells in both host strains (Fig. 2Go), arguing that the OT-I CD8 T cells themselves are receptive to IL-12 signals during homeostatic expansion. This complements previous data, indicating that IL-12 can support CD8+ T cell responses to antigenic stimulation (18, 19), and suggests that IL-12 has a similar effect on homeostatic expansion.



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FIGURE 2. IL-12 can increase homeostatic proliferation by acting directly on the T cells themselves. Purified OT-I.PL, CD8+ T cells were CFSE labeled and adoptively transferred into irradiated C57BL6 and IL-12R-deficient recipients. Recipient mice were injected with PBS (thick, unfilled line) or IL-12 (thin, gray-filled lines) and analyzed on day 7 after transfer as described in Fig. 1Go. CFSE levels (A) and total cell numbers (B) in the OT-I donor population were calculated and displayed as described in Fig. 1Go.

 
It was possible that the increased proliferation induced by IL-12 was due to expansion of a small population of activated or memory OT-I cells in the inoculum; this is especially concerning because IL-12R is not expressed on resting naive T cells but is up-regulated after TCR stimulation (15, 25). To test this we purified naive phenotype (i.e., CD44 low) CD8+ OT-I cells before adoptive transfer (Fig. 3GoA). This approach efficiently purifies phenotypically and functionally naive CD8 T cells (1, 18, 19). Once again, we found that IL-12 augmented the homeostatic expansion of these OT-I cells (Fig. 3GoB), arguing that the effect of IL-12 is mediated on cells that were naive phenotype at transfer.



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FIGURE 3. IL-12 stimulates homeostatic proliferation of CD44low OT-1-Thy1.1 CD8 cells. A, Level of CD44 expression on CD8 T cells before (thin, gray-filled line) and after (thick, unfilled line) purification of CD44low cells via MACS column. B, Purified OT-I-Thy1.1, CD44low, CD8+ T cells were CFSE labeled and adoptively transferred into irradiated C57BL6 mice. Recipient mice were injected with either PBS (thick, unfilled line) or IL-12 (thin, gray-filled line) and analyzed on day 7 after transfer as described in Fig. 1Go. The data shown are representative for three mice analyzed in each group.

 
IL-12 in the absence of class I MHC has no effect on homeostatic proliferation

Previous reports have indicated that in order for T cells to respond to IL-12 they must have also received a signal through their TCR (15, 25, 26, 27). In contrast, there is evidence from some groups that homeostatic expansion can occur in the absence of a peptide/MHC ligand for the TCR (11). To test whether the IL-12 effect we observed was dependent on a TCR signal derived from interactions with self-peptide/MHC complexes, we tested the impact of IL-12 on OT-I proliferation after transfer into irradiated B6 or TAP-1o/o recipients. In the OT-I system, the lack of class I MHC expression due to the TAP-1 mutation severely limits homeostatic expansion (2, 4). As expected, IL-12 enhanced proliferation in the B6 hosts (Fig. 4GoA). Strikingly, IL-12 failed to increase proliferation in the TAP-1o/o hosts environment lacking self-peptide/MHC (Fig. 4GoA). Indeed, if anything the low grade proliferation we observed in TAP-1 hosts was slightly reduced in the presence of supplementary IL-12. These observations are also directly reflected in the total number of OT-I cells found in the recipients (Fig. 4GoB). Thus, it appears that T cell sensitivity to IL-12 during homeostatic proliferation first requires a signal through the TCR.



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FIGURE 4. Requirement of self-peptide/MHC interactions for the IL-12 effect. CD8+ T cells were purified from an OT-I.PL donor, labeled with CFSE, and transferred into irradiated B6 or TAPo recipients. The mice were injected with PBS (thick, unfilled line) or IL-12 (thin, gray-filled line) and analyzed on day 7 after transfer as described in Fig. 1Go. CFSE levels (A) and total cell numbers (B) in the OT-I donor population were calculated and displayed as described in Fig. 1Go. These data are representative of two independent experiments.

 
Impact of IL-12 on functional and phenotypic features of cells undergoing homeostatic expansion

Numerous groups have reported that homeostatic expansion involves not only the proliferation of naive T cells, but also their differentiation into memory phenotype cells (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). In contrast to Ag reactivity, this transition appears not to involve a typical effector cell stage, as judged by the classic up-regulation of activation markers (such as CD69 and CD25), and at least for CD8 cells, their functional activity is more similar to that of memory cells than to that of effector cells (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). Because IL-12 can greatly enhance effector differentiation of CD8 T cells in response to Ag (15, 16, 18, 19), we sought to determine whether IL-12 changed the functional or phenotypic characteristics of OT-I cells undergoing homeostatic expansion.

OT-I cells were adoptively transferred into thymectomized/irradiated B6 recipients (mice were thymectomized to avoid host reconstitution of the T cell compartment after irradiation). Two weeks post-transfer the mice were challenged with PBS alone, IL-12 alone, OVAp alone, or a combination of OVAp and IL-12. At this time point virtually all the transferred cells had undergone at least one round of division (data not shown). Homeostatically expanded cells proliferated efficiently in response to both free OVAp alone and OVAp/IL-12 (Fig. 5Go), suggesting that they are not anergic. There was a greater increase in total cell number of OT-I lymphocytes stimulated with OVAp/IL-12 as opposed to OVAp alone (Fig. 5Go), in keeping with data showing that IL-12 can act as an efficient adjuvant for CD8+ T cell activation (19). Hence we can conclude that OT-I cells that have undergone homeostatic proliferation not only can respond to Ag (OVAp), but this response can also be further augmented by inflammatory cytokines (IL-12). Note that at this early time point (3 days) after initiating IL-12 administration, there is no effect on OT-I expansion in the absence of Ag. However, similar experiments in which mice were analyzed 7 days after starting IL-12 injections showed that proliferation of OT-I cells is still enhanced by IL-12 (data not shown), implying that reactivity to IL-12 is maintained throughout homeostatic expansion. We also tested the functionality of OT-I cells undergoing homeostatic expansion by performing an ex vivo cytolytic assay. OT-I cells that had undergone homeostatic expansion in irradiated hosts were poor effector cells (Fig. 6Go), as demonstrated previously (2, 4). Supplementary IL-12 alone did not improve cytolytic effector function (Fig. 6Go). However, in vivo antigenic stimulation of the OT-I cells generated potent cytolytic effectors, and this was further enhanced by IL-12 (Fig. 6Go). These data suggest that OT-I cells undergoing homeostatic expansion are not efficient killer cells, but can differentiate into effector cells in response to true antigenic challenge.



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FIGURE 5. Homeostatic proliferation does not render cells anergic to Ag. CFSE-labeled OT-I.PL cells were transferred into irradiated, thymectomized B6 recipients. Fourteen days post-transfer recipient mice received PBS, IL-12, OVAp, or a combination of OVAp and IL-12, as indicated. OVAp was given as two injections (25 µg of peptide/injection) administered s.c. on the lower and upper back on day 14. IL-12 (1 µg/injection) and PBS were given i.p. on days 14, 15, and 16, and the mice were harvested on day 17. Live Thy1.1+/CD8+ cells (donor cells) were analyzed for CFSE levels (A) and cell numbers (B) in the lymph node. Data in B show average cell number (and SD) for three mice per group from one experiment. The data are representative of three to six recipients per condition from two independent experiments.

 


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FIGURE 6. Homeostatically expanded OT-I become effective killers in response to Ag stimulation. Lymph node cells from three recipient mice per condition, as described in Fig. 5Go, were pooled and purified for Thy1.1+ expression using positive selection over magnetic columns. The ability of the resulting cells to lyse OVAp-pulsed EL4 target cells was tested in a 51Cr release assay, and the data are represented as the percent specific lysis. The E:T cell ratios shown are corrected for the percentage of cells positive for Thy1.1 and CD8 (i.e., OT-I donor cells) after magnetic purification. Lysis on EL4 without OVAp was <5%.

 
Finally, the phenotype of OT-I cells undergoing homeostatic expansion in the presence or the absence of IL-12 was addressed. Previous work has shown that CD8 T cells up-regulate CD44, but not CD69 or CD25, during homeostatic expansion (2, 7). As shown in Fig. 7Go, we found that IL-12 enhances the expression of CD44 even further, with CD44 expression correlating with multiple rounds of division. In contrast, CD69 remains low during homeostatic expansion regardless of the presence of IL-12. CD25 (IL-2R {alpha}-chain) is also low on OT-I cells undergoing homeostatic expansion in the absence of IL-12, but, interestingly, CD25 is up-regulated in the presence of IL-12 (Fig. 7Go). CD25 expression was modest, however, and increased only after around seven or eight cell divisions. In contrast, CD25 was rapidly up-regulated to high levels in the OT-I response to OVAp (data not shown), consistent with the reports of others (5).



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FIGURE 7. IL-12 induces expression of CD25 and increases expression of CD44 during homeostatic expansion. OT-I.PL cells were labeled with CFSE and transferred into unirradiated B6 hosts or into irradiated B6 hosts that were injected with PBS or IL-12 on days 1, 2, and 3 after transfer, as indicated. On day 8 following transfer, the lymph node Thy1.1+ CD8+ population (donor OT-I cells) was analyzed. A, CFSE levels for OT-I cells from unirradiated hosts (black filled line) or from irradiated hosts treated with PBS (gray filled line) or with IL-12 (thick unfilled line) are shown. The numbers represent the number of cell divisions, judged by CFSE dilution. B, The expression of CD25, CD69, and CD44 is plotted vs CFSE for the indicated populations (control indicates cells recovered from unirradiated hosts). Representative data are shown. In this experiment two animals per group were studied with similar results, and the data are also representative of a second experiment when CD44low (i.e., naive phenotype) OT-I cells were used for transfer.

 
Endogenous IL-12 augments, but is not required for, homeostatic expansion

Because IL-12 is induced only during inflammatory responses rather than constitutively, it seemed unlikely that IL-12 would play a central role in normal T cell homeostatic expansion. In contrast, we and many other groups make extensive use of sublethal irradiation as a means of generating lymphopenic hosts, and it is known that irradiation can induce the production of a variety of inflammatory mediators (28). Therefore, we tested the requirement for endogenous IL-12 in driving homeostatic expansion in irradiated hosts. OT-I cells were tested for their ability to proliferate in irradiated wild-type vs IL-12o/o hosts. As shown in Fig. 8Go, OT-I cells proliferated less (by two or three rounds of division) in the IL-12-deficient recipients compared with the control recipients, although there was still clearly a robust proliferative response. IL-23, a cytokine that shares certain functions with IL-12, was recently reported (29). Because this cytokine assembles with the p40 subunit of IL-12 (the chain ablated in the IL-12o/o animals used here), we cannot currently determine whether this mild reduction in homeostatic expansion in the IL-12 p40o/o hosts is due to a loss of IL-12 or IL-23. In any case, these data suggest that IL-12 and/or IL-23 may play an important, but not essential, role in driving homeostatic expansion.



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FIGURE 8. Endogenous IL-12 augments CD8 T cell homeostatic expansion. CD8+ T cells were isolated from OT-I.PL donors, labeled with CFSE, and transferred into irradiated B6 (thin, gray-filled line) or irradiated IL-12o/o (thick, unfilled line) recipients. The profiles presented here are gated on Thy1.1+/CD8+ cells and are representative of control (n = 3) and IL-12o/o (n = 4) hosts.

 

    Discussion
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 
The mature T cell pool is maintained at a fairly constant level by the balance of production, survival, expansion, and death. Recently, studies of T cell homeostasis went in an unexpected direction, with the finding that mature naive T cells proliferate and undergo transient maturation into memory cells upon exposure to self peptide/MHC ligands in a lymphopenic environment (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). This response seems to be important for maintenance of the T cell compartment, but little is known about how homeostatic expansion is regulated.

TCR engagement is important for homeostatic expansion, but this appears to be an interaction with self rather than foreign or environmental peptide/MHC Ags (1, 2, 4, 6, 8). Furthermore, preliminary data suggested that homeostatic expansion does not follow the same rules as typical antigenic stimulation. For example, T cells undergoing homeostatic expansion do not up-regulate normal early activation markers (including CD69 and CD25), and the response does not appear to require the classic costimulator molecule CD28 (1, 6) (M. Prlic and S. C. Jameson, unpublished observations).

To determine what role cytokines play in driving homeostatic expansion, we studied the impact of supplementary IL-2 and IL-12 on this process. IL-2 is known to have multiple effects on T cell expansion and survival; in some cases it may augment the T cell proliferative response and in other cases may blunt it (30, 31). In our experiments we observed no impact of IL-2 alone; this is in keeping with other reports that homeostatic expansion occurs normally using IL-2-deficient T cells (6). Furthermore, these data may be explained by the lack of up-regulation of CD25, the IL-2R {alpha}-chain, during homeostatic expansion (2, 5, 6, 7, 32).

Recent evidence has shown that naive CD8 T cells do not differentiate fully when stimulated with Ag plus IL-2/costimulation, but that they also require a third signal that can be provided by adjuvants or IL-12 (18, 19). Thus, in vivo administration of peptide alone can tolerize Ag-specific CD8 T cells (18), while coadministration of peptide and IL-12 supports clonal expansion, differentiation, and development of a memory population (19). We found that IL-12 also augmented CD8 homeostatic expansion, as reflected both by more rounds of proliferation and by increased numbers of donor T cells in secondary lymphoid organs. Previous reports have indicated that for T cells to respond to IL-12 they must have also received a signal through their TCR (15, 25, 26, 27). This also appears to be true in the case of homeostatic expansion, because we saw no effect of IL-12 on OT-I proliferation of survival in (class I-deficient) TAP-1o/o hosts. Thus, we reach the intriguing conclusion that homeostatic expansion appears to be maximal upon signal 1 (TCR ligation, in this case by self peptide/MHC) and signal 3 (in the form of IL-12), but does not require conventional signal 2, as evidenced by the lack of a requirement for IL-2 or classic costimulator molecules (1, 6) (M. Prlic and S. C. Jameson, manuscript in preparation).

Taken together our data indicate that homeostatic expansion involves an atypical pattern of cytokine reactivity, in that T cells develop reactivity to one inflammatory cytokine (IL-12) but not another (IL-2). In contrast, reactivity to both these cytokines is typical of CD8 and Th1 T cells after Ag-driven proliferation (26, 30, 31, 33). As has been previously observed, the poor reactivity to IL-2 is evidently due to lack of up-regulation of CD25 (IL-2R{alpha}) (2, 5, 6, 7, 32). Interestingly, we found that IL-12 administration did increase the expression of CD25 (Fig. 7Go). This might account for our finding that IL-2 can influence homeostatic expansion when IL-12 is coinjected (Fig. 1Go). In this case, though, IL-2 appears to induce the loss of OT-I cells after homeostatic expansion rather than their expansion; the basis for this is currently uncertain, but there is considerable evidence that IL-2 not only promotes T cell growth, but also induces activated and memory T cell death (30, 31, 34).

Our previous work indicated that IL-7 plays a critical role in T cell homeostatic expansion (12). This supports earlier reports showing that depletion of IL-7 (together with IL-4) resulted in a loss of naive CD4 T cells (35). In our hands, supplementary IL-7 did not enhance OT-I homeostatic expansion (W. C. Kieper and S. C. Jameson, data not shown). Although this result suggests that endogenous IL-7 may be at saturating levels for homeostatic expansion, it is possible that the IL-7 doses used in these experiments (250 ng/day for 3 days following T cell transfer) were simply too low to affect expansion; this possibility is currently being explored. Together these data argue that endogenous IL-7 is both necessary and sufficient for T cell homeostatic proliferation and mature T cell survival. The role of IL-7 in homeostatic expansion is hard to determine, because IL-7 is a T cell survival factor (13, 35, 36, 37) but can also support T cell proliferation (38, 39). IL-12 has been shown to enhance CD8 T cell expansion and memory cell production during an immune response in vivo (19). Thus, at present it is unclear whether IL-7 and IL-12 act sequentially or cooperatively in driving homeostatic expansion, a question that will require further investigation. Dissecting the roles of these cytokines on simple T cell survival vs enhanced T cell reactivity will be important to understand the regulation of homeostatic expansion and the potential for its therapeutic manipulation.

There is less information on the factors that might oppose homeostatic expansion. Our data argue that high dose IL-2 can counter the enhancing effect of IL-12 on OT-I homeostatic expansion, leading to a loss of T cell accumulation (Fig. 1Go). This ties in with previous work suggesting that IL-2 can restrain as well as promote T cell proliferation (31, 40, 41, 42, 43), and more specifically, that IL-2 can lead to loss of memory phenotype CD8 T cells (34). Furthermore, data from two groups demonstrated that T cell expression of a dominant-negative TGF-{beta} receptor resulted in the massive expansion of CD8+ lymphocytes (44, 45). Although the constellation of activation/memory markers induced on these cells is not identical with that on cells undergoing homeostatic expansion, it is tempting to speculate that TGF-{beta} (which is constitutively expressed) may dampen homeostatic expansion. Interestingly, studies on Ag-driven T cell responses suggest that TGF-{beta} and IL-12 oppose each others’ functions (46, 47, 48, 49). Thus, the balance between these cytokines (and presumably others) may determine the occurrence and extent of homeostatic expansion.

Chronic antigenic stimulation of T cells can lead to functional unresponsiveness toward a subsequent Ag challenge, especially in the absence of costimulation or "danger" cues (50, 51). Because homeostatic proliferation occurs in response to a continual presence of self-peptide/MHC ligands and does not appear to involve classic costimuli (1, 6), it was possible that homeostatic expansion would generate anergic T cells. Hence another important aspect of our experiments is the finding that OT-I CD8 T cells that had undergone homeostatic expansion are fully capable of responding to Ag stimulation both by proliferation and by in vivo differentiation to cytolytic effector cells (Figs. 5Go and 6Go). Significantly, the process of homeostatic expansion apparently allows these T cells to respond to peptide Ag without adjuvant (evidenced by the proliferative and differentiative response seen to OVAp alone; Figs. 5Go and 6Go). In contrast, previous work indicated that naive CD8 T cells were anergized by peptide Ag alone and required an adjuvant (such as CFA or IL-12) that was absolutely required for effector cell differentiation (18, 19). More recent work has shown that memory CD8 T cells differ in this requirement for adjuvant, and can respond to peptide alone (C. S. Schmidt and M. F. Mescher, manuscript in preparation). Overall, then, our data support the finding of others that homeostatic expansion produces competent cells with memory function.

Homeostatic expansion has some elements of autoimmunity, in that it involves overt reactivity of T cells to self peptide/MHC ligands, accompanied by proliferation and differentiation. Indeed, in reference to our current data it is noticeable that the pathogenesis of several autoimmune diseases involves IL-12 (52, 53, 54, 55). Because there is extensive evidence that recovery from lymphopenia can induce autoimmune diseases (56, 57, 58, 59), it will be interesting to determine whether IL-12 can exacerbate autoimmunity through its effect on T cell homeostatic expansion.


    Acknowledgments
 
We thank Paul Weaver and Javier Valenzuela for technical advice, and Kris Hogquist, Marc Jenkins, and members of the Jameson and Hogquist laboratories for helpful discussions. Recombinant IL-12 was kindly provided by Genetics Institute.


    Footnotes
 
1 This work was supported by Grant RPG-99-264 from the American Cancer Society and National Institutes of Health Grant AI38903 (to S.C.J.), and a predoctoral fellowship from National Institutes of Health Immunology Training Grant T32 AI07313 (to W.C.K.). Back

2 Current address: Department of Immunology, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037. Back

3 Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Stephen C. Jameson, University of Minnesota Medical Center, MMC 334, 420 Delaware Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455. Back

4 Abbreviation used in this paper: OVAp, OVA peptide. Back

Received for publication January 18, 2000. Accepted for publication February 27, 2001.


    References
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 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 

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