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* Research Unit on Autoimmune Diseases, Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Mexico City, Mexico; and
Department of Immunology, St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, Memphis, TN 38105-2794
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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Signaling through CD40 induces a number of functions that differ depending on the type of APC (6, 7). CD40 ligation on dendritic cells (DC) induces the release of IL-12 and plays a role in their final maturation. On macrophages, CD40 ligation induces their activation and hence plays a role in the defense against intracellular pathogens (8, 9). The effects of CD40 signaling have been studied in detail in B cells, where CD40 ligation modulates the expression of many genes (10), leading to B cell proliferation and survival (11, 12), differentiation into Ab-secreting cells (13, 14, 15), isotype switching (13, 16), and an enhancement of their ability to activate T cells during Ag presentation. The latter is due at least in part to up-regulation of CD80 expression (17, 18, 19, 20). Others have proposed that CD40-induced enhancement of Ag presentation could be related to changes in the ability of B cells to process Ags (21). These findings are not mutually exclusive.
In many cell systems it has been demonstrated that receptor signaling is greatly enhanced by incorporation into cholesterol-enriched cell membrane microdomains (22, 23, 24), also referred to as lipid rafts. During T cell Ag recognition, TCR signaling induces the aggregation of TCR and costimulatory receptor-containing rafts, eventually leading to the formation of the immunological synapse, which polarizes the reciprocal activation processes of the T cell and the APC (25, 26, 27, 28). Lipid rafts containing MHC-II also exist on the APC surface before T cell Ag recognition (29). These appear to be essential to increase the number of TCR/CD3 complexes engaged during Ag presentation. Clustering of these lipid rafts on the APC side during early T cell Ag recognition could lead to a local increase in MHC-II and costimulatory molecule density. Therefore, the increased overall T cell-APC avidity would result in more efficient T cell activation. Besides an increase in the efficiency of Ag presentation, this could lead to enhanced signaling through MHC-II on the APC itself (30).
During DC maturation, MHC-II molecules are transported from intracellular processing compartments to the cell surface (31, 32). Moreover, engagement by specific TCR triggers the export of MHC-II molecules from intracellular compartments in a unidirectional manner to the immunological synapse on DC (31, 32). Although it is not known whether a similar phenomenon occurs during Ag presentation by B cells, candidate signals that may induce the recruitment of MHC-II to the cell surface and the immunological synapse are surface Ig, CD40, and the ligands for the different Toll-like receptors. Indeed, MHC-II and CD40 can be associated on the cell surface, and reciprocal stimulation through either molecule increases their presence in detergent-insoluble fractions (33, 34).
In the present study we found that CD40 ligation on B cells had a dual positive effect on Ag presentation. An early effect was characterized by a rapid clustering of MHC-II and CD80 in cholesterol-enriched domains on the cell surface that correlates with an increased ability to stimulate both T cell hybridomas and naive T cells, which is followed by a more pronounced late effect, which correlates with increased expression of CD80.
| Materials and Methods |
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Hen egg-white lysozyme (HEL) was obtained from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO). Culture medium was RPMI 1640 (Life Technologies, Gaithersburg, MD) supplemented with 25 mM HEPES, 2 mM glutamine, sodium pyruvate, penicillin, streptomycin, and 10% FBS (HyClone Laboratories, Logan, UT). Synthetic HEL or bovine RNase A peptides were either synthesized at the Hartwell Center, St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, or were purchased from Research Genetics (Huntsville, AL). Methyl-
-cyclodextrin was from Sigma-Aldrich.
T cell hybridomas and other cell lines
HEL-specific, IAk-restricted T cell hybridomas C10 (48-62) and A6.B3 (34-45) were gifts from Dr. L. Glimcher (Harvard University, Boston, MA) (35), E907.D (33-47) was generated by one of us (J.M.) and has been described previously (36). The bovine RNase A4356-specific T cell hybridoma TS12 was a gift from Dr. P. Allen (Washington University, St. Louis, MO) (37). The mouse B cell hybridoma LK-35.2 (H-2k,d; American Type Culture Collection, Manassas, VA) (38) was used as APC. The IL-2-dependent cell line CTLL-2 (39) was obtained from American Type Culture Collection. All cells were maintained in culture in complete medium at 37°C in 5% CO2.
Mice and T cell purification
Mice bearing the rearranged 
-chain genes from the anti-HEL4661 T cell hybridoma 3A9 in C3H (H2k) background (3A9 mice) have been described previously (40). 3A9 CD4+ T cells were purified by B220, CD8, IAk, NK1.1, CD14, and CD69 negative selection (BD PharMingen, San Diego, CA) FACS using a Mo-Flo flow cytometer (Cytomation, Fort Collins, CO).
Monoclonal Abs
The hybridoma H116.32 (secreting IgG2b anti-Ia
k) (41) was a gift from Dr. G. Hämmerling (German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany). Hybridoma secreting the rat-derived anti-CD40 mAb 1C10 (42) was a gift from Dr. A. Heath (University of Sheffield, Sheffield, U.K.), the rat hybridomas secreting anti-CD11b mAb 70.15.11.5.HL (IgG2b), GL-1 (IgG2a anti-CD86), and the hybridoma 1G10 (IgG2a anti-CD80) were acquired from American Type Culture Collection. All mAbs were used either as culture supernatants or purified from ascites in Sepharose 4B-protein A or protein G columns (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, Piscataway, NJ). For the confocal microscopy experiments, purified 1G10 Ab was labeled with Texas Red (Pierce, Rockford, IL) as described in the product brochure. Anti-MHC-II (H116-32) was either biotinylated (Pierce) or labeled with Texas Red. Finally, anti-CD54-biotin (clone 3E2), and anti-CD80-FITC (clone 1G10) were purchased from BD PharMingen.
Ag presentation assays
For these studies a variable number of APC (LK-35.2) were cultured with 5 x 104 T cell hybridoma cells for 24 h in the absence or the presence of exogenous HEL or the relevant peptide in triplicate wells in 96-well plates in a final volume of 200 µl. At 24 h, 100 µl of supernatant was recovered and cultured for 36 additional h with 104 CTLL-2 cells. During the last 16 h of culture 1 µCi [3H]TdR was added to each well. Cultures were harvested with a semiautomatic cell harvester (Tomtec, Hamden, CT), and DNA synthesis was determined in a scintillation counter (Wallac, Gaithersburg, MD).
Cytokine quantitation
IL-2 and IFN-
concentrations were determined using a multiplexed, particle-based, flow cytometric assay as previously described (43).
Flow cytometry
This was conducted after reacting cells with the appropriate mAbs and fluorescent dye-labeled second reagents. All Ab reactions were conducted at 4°C in PBS containing 0.1% sodium azide and 1% rabbit serum to prevent binding of mAb to Fc receptors. Some Abs were biotinylated (as indicated in the figure legends), followed by fluorescent dye-labeled streptavidin (BD PharMingen or Jackson ImmunoResearch Laboratories (West Grove, PA)). One- to four-color flow cytometry was conducted in a dual laser FACSort flow cytometer (BD Biosciences, San Jose, CA).
Confocal microscopy
LK35.2 cells (104) were cultured at 37°C on sterile glass slides in a volume of 200 µl for 24 h, after which 10 µg/ml anti-CD40 or anti-CD11b (control) was added and incubated at 37°C for varying lengths of time. Slides were washed, fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde, stained for the expression of MHC-II (Texas Red or Alexa 488), ganglioside M1 (GM1; Alexa 488-cholera toxin B (Alexa 488-CTB)) and CD80-Texas Red. Cover glasses were mounted on Vectashield (Vector Laboratories, Burlingame, CA), sealed with acrylic resin, and observed under a confocal microscope (model LSM510; Carl Zeiss, New York, NY) equipped with a dual laser. Fluorescence detection was conducted simultaneously with excitation/emission at 488/520 nm for FITC or Alexa 488, and at 596/633 nm for Texas Red. Images (x40 and x100) were acquired with a 2024 x 2024 pixel resolution and stored in the computer, after which they were processed and analyzed by means of the LSM5 Image Examiner software (Carl Zeiss).
| Results |
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The aim of our initial experiments was to confirm that CD40 ligation on APC contribute to their Ag-presenting functions and to examine whether this phenomenon occurred with more than a single epitope. Treatment of the B cell hybridoma LK-35.2 with agonist anti-CD40 mAb in the presence of varying concentrations of HEL enhanced the ability of the T cell hybridomas C10 (48-62), A6.B3 (34-45), and E.907D (33-47) to see Ag and to release IL-2. For A6.B3 and E.907D, this was more evident at low Ag dose (Fig. 1A). Similar results were obtained with a T cell hybridoma specific for another Ag, bovine RNase A (data not shown and Fig. 2). Thus, CD40 ligation induces an enhancement of Ag presentation of at least four different epitopes from two proteins.
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CD40 ligation-induced enhancement of the ability of APC to activate T cells during Ag presentation occurs in two sequential phases
We next examined the kinetics of anti-CD40-induced enhancement of Ag presentation and its relation to the expression of the costimulatory molecules CD80 and/or CD86. Increased CD80 expression was seen, but only after a 12-h incubation in the presence of anti-CD40 (Fig. 2A). The expression of CD86, ICAM-1, and MHC-II did not change after 72 h in the presence of anti-CD40.
It was important to define whether the enhancement of Ag presentation correlated with the kinetics of CD80 expression. We, therefore, conducted experiments with LK-35.2 cells treated with anti-CD40 for varying lengths of time and fixed with paraformaldehyde before the addition of synthetic peptides. CD40 ligation enhanced the ability of APC to stimulate IL-2 release by T cell hybridomas specific for HEL3445 or bovine RNase A4356 as early as 30 min after the addition of anti-CD40 (Fig. 2B, center and right). This enhancement had a first peak at 3 h, before any detectable increase in CD80 expression (Fig. 2B, left). At 12 h, there was a further enhancement of the ability of LK-35.2 cells to induce IL-2 release, which was coincident with a significant increase in CD80 expression. These results allow us to conclude that the increase in CD80 expression is not involved in the early enhancement of Ag presentation induced by CD40 ligation. Moreover, as the preprocessed Ag (synthetic peptide) was added to metabolically inactive APC previously activated through CD40, the enhancing effect is unrelated to Ag uptake and/or intracellular handling.
Short-term anti-CD40-activated B cells have an increased ability to activate naive CD4+ T cells
The former Ag presentation experiments were conducted with T cell hybridomas, which have a lower threshold for activation. Moreover, if enhanced costimulation via CD80-CD28 is the major benefit of short-term CD40 ligation, T cell hybridomas are representative of secondary T cells, which are less dependent of CD80-CD28 interactions. As it has been shown that CD40 signaling enhances the ability of resting B cells to activate naive T cells (44), it was important to examine whether the early, costimulator-independent activation of LK-35.2 cells was sufficient to enhance their ability to activate naive T cells. Thus, we tested the capability of anti-CD40-treated LK-35.2 cells to activate resting naive T cells from 3A9 transgenic mice, which bear the rearranged
- and
-chain TCR genes from a HEL4862-specific T cell hybridoma (40). To ensure that other accessory cells and activated cells were not present during the assay, spleen CD4+ T cells from 3A9 mice were purified by FACS-negative selection after staining with a mixture of PE-labeled mAbs specific for MHC-II (IAk), B220, NK1.1, CD14, CD8, and CD69. The remaining cells were typically small lymphocytes and were >90% CD4+ with <1% cells positive for any of the mixture mAbs. For these experiments, LK-35.2 cells were incubated with 10 µg/ml anti-CD40 for 3 h in the absence of Ag, washed, and fixed in 1% paraformaldehyde. The peptide HEL4863 was added at increasing concentrations to the fixed APC and 3A9 cells, directly to the tissue culture wells.
Anti-CD40-treated LK-35.2 cells were significantly better at inducing naive 3A9 CD4+ T cell proliferation after a 48-h incubation period compared with control LK-35.2 cells precultured for the same length of time in the presence of an irrelevant isotype control Ab (Fig. 3, top panel). When examined at later times, the differences in the T cell activation capacity of anti-CD40-treated and control LK-35.2 cells were less apparent, but still present (data not shown). These results clearly indicate that short-term CD40 stimulation prepares APC for Ag presentation to and activation of resting T cells.
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. CD40-activated APC induced IL-2 and IFN-
(Fig. 3, middle and bottom panels), but no IL-4 (data not shown), release by freshly isolated 3A9 T cells. The results indicate that CD40 ligation primes APC to have an enhanced ability to activate T cells and to induce an early release of effector cytokines. Short-term CD40 ligation on normal B cells is sufficient to enhance their Ag-presenting capacity
Among the mechanisms needed to turn resting B cells into professional APC are IL-4, which induces MHC-II expression, Ig cross-linking by Ag, and T cell-derived signals, particularly CD40 ligation (5, 45). These events act in concert to allow B cells to enter into an activated state in which they can activate Ag-specific T cells. Although the precise role of these events has not been established, the results shown to date suggest that CD40 could be the major stimulus leading to the enhancement of the Ag-presenting function of B cells. Therefore, we examined the effect of anti-CD40 on the expression of CD80, CD86, MHC-II, and ICAM-1 by freshly isolated spleen B cells as well as on their ability to induce IL-2 release by T cell hybridomas. To ensure that the effect was not due to the possible presence of LPS in the medium, these experiments were conducted in the presence of polymyxin B. Anti-CD40 induced an increase in MHC-II, CD80, and ICAM-1 expression to near-optimal levels at 72 h (Fig. 4A). CD86 was induced at 3 h to decline at 12 h. This differs from LK-35.2 cells, which are constitutively positive for all these markers, except for CD80, which is weak in unstimulated LK-35.2 cells and was induced by CD40 ligation (Fig. 2A). CD40 ligation for a short period of 3 h was again sufficient to render normal B cells into fully competent APCs for T cell hybridomas (Fig. 4B).
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It was recently shown that MHC-II on the APC surface concentrate in lipid rafts, even before any contact with T cells, and that raft disruption impairs Ag presentation (29). The stimulus (or stimuli) leading to MHC-II clustering in lipid rafts is as yet unknown. As CD40 is a major costimulator for APC, and it has been shown to associate with class II on the surface of B cells (33, 34), it was possible that some of the enhancing effects of CD40 ligation on Ag presentation could be through the induction of MHC-II cluster formation. LK-35.2 cells cultured in the presence of anti-CD40 for different lengths of time, stained with Texas Red-labeled anti-MHC-II, and viewed under a confocal microscope (Fig. 5A). In unstimulated cells, MHC-II are evenly distributed in small clusters over the cell surface, and anti-CD40 induces a progressive aggregation into larger clusters, reaching a peak at 3 h. Before any stimulus, the percentage of large (>1.5 µm) clusters was
4.1 at 1 h; CD40-induced clusters occurred in 69 ± 14% of cells rising to 83 ± 2.5% at 3 h and 85 ± 2% at 24 h (Fig. 5B). These clusters presented in two main patterns; nearly half the cells had a patchy distribution of large clusters, whereas the remaining cells showed a complete polarization of MHC-II molecules into a very large high density structure (Fig. 5 and data not shown). Cluster aggregation was not just a passive effect of anti-CD40 cross-linking, as it did not occur in LK-35.2 cells cultured with anti-CD40 in the presence of 0.1% NaN3 (Fig. 6).
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In dendritic cells, MHC-II colocalize with the costimulatory molecules CD80/86, even before they reach the cell surface (46). Therefore, we examined whether, in addition to MHC-II cluster aggregation, CD40 ligation could induce colocalization of MHC-II with the costimulatory molecule CD80 on the APC surface. For these experiments, LK-35.2 cells were cultured on sterile glass slides in the presence of anti-CD40 for varying lengths of time, after which cells were fixed and stained for the expression of MHC-II (Alexa 488) plus CD80 (Texas Red). LK-35.2 cells have a very faint basal expression of CD80, which is patchy and colocalizes with MHC-II in all cells that were positive for CD80, which were nearly 100% (Fig. 7). As shown by flow cytometry, incubation with anti-CD40 induces an increased expression of CD80 after 24 h, but not after 3 h. However, the distribution of CD80 follows that of MHC-II in the aggregated clusters induced by anti-CD40. These results indicate that MHC-II and CD80 are present in the same clusters before CD40 ligation, providing ligands for the TCR and the costimulatory receptor CD28, respectively. These clusters coaggregate into larger clusters to become a higher avidity target for T cells, which may result in more efficient T cell activation.
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Lipid rafts appear to contain molecules that are the focal points for the initiation of signal transduction. Recent observations indicate that MHC-II molecules can be found in lipid rafts (29). Thus, we examined whether the MHC-II clusters and higher order aggregates induced by CD40 ligation were contained within sphingolipid (hence, cholesterol)-enriched microdomains as defined by CTB binding. For these studies, LK-35.2 cells were cultured on sterile glass slides in the presence or the absence of anti-CD40 for different lengths of time, after which they were stained for GM1 (Alexa 488-CTB) and MHC-II (Texas Red) and observed under a confocal microscope. Before CD40 ligation, LK-35.2 cells express MHC-II with a basal colocalization with GM1 in small patches along the cell surface (Fig. 8). Incubation with anti-CD40 at 37°C for as little as 1 h (data not shown) was sufficient to increase the patch size, which reached a maximum at 3 h and was always colocalizing with GM1. All MHC-II clusters on the cell surface were contained within GM1-positive spots. Moreover, MHC-II clusters on the cell surface were disrupted by methyl-
-cyclodextrin, which depletes cholesterol. Thus, CD40 ligation induces aggregation of small MHC-II-containing cholesterol/sphingolipid-enriched rafts into larger clusters. Moreover, although we did not carry out simultaneous staining for CD80 expression, the almost complete colocalization of MHC-II with either GM1 or CD80 also suggests CD80-MHC-II association in lipid rafts. In contrast, methyl-
-cyclodextrin failed to disrupt MHC-II clusters in LK-35.2 stimulated through CD40 for 24 h. This suggests that although the initial CD40-induced aggregation of MHC-II essentially takes place in lipid rafts, these organize later into more complex structures.
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MHC-II and CD80 accumulation in lipid rafts induced by CD40 ligation correlates with an early enhancement in Ag presentation
As CD40 ligation was followed by an aggregation of MHC-II and CD80 lipid rafts into larger clusters together with an early enhancement of Ag presentation, it was of interest to examine whether disruption of such lipid rafts would abrogate the enhancing effects of CD40 ligation on Ag presentation. LK-35.2 cells were treated as described above, in the presence or the absence of methyl-
-cyclodextrin. Fig. 9 shows that methyl-
-cyclodextrin, in addition to disrupting MHC-II clusters, reverses the early positive effects of CD40 ligation on Ag presentation. Thus, the presence of larger MHC-II/CD80 lipid rafts directly correlates with the early enhanced Ag presentation induced by short-term CD40 ligation. This was not the case for the enhancing effect of anti-CD40 on cells stimulated for 24 h, which was not reversed by methyl-
-cyclodextrin and correlated with an increase in CD80 on the APC surface and a relative resistance to raft disruption by methyl-
-cyclodextrin, suggesting, again, that these higher order clusters are held together by a different mechanism.
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| Discussion |
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. Among the TNF receptor family members, CD40 has one of the widest spectra of functions in the immune system. Its capacity to enhance the ability of APC to activate T cells in response to Ag has been demonstrated for DC (6, 47, 48) and B cells (44). The Ag-presenting function of B cells requires a change from a resting, tolerogenic, nonprofessional Ag-presenting B cell into an activated, professional APC fully capable of activating T cells. B cells, but not other APC from CD40-null mice, have a defect in Ag presentation (49). These studies together with our current findings place CD40 ligation as the major stimulus driving B cell Ag-presenting functions.
Previous findings that CD40 ligation induces an enhancement of the ability of B cells to activate T cells in response to an intact protein (pigeon cytochrome c) but not in response to the peptide have suggested that CD40 improves Ag processing (21). However, unlike other studies in which CD40 ligation augments processing in the class I MHC pathway via increased expression of peptide transporters (50), the mechanisms involved in the increased processing for MHC-II presentation are not clear. We found an enhancement of presentation to T cells specific for two different Ags, which differ in Ag processing requirements (51). Although anti-CD40 ligation could have an enhancing effect on Ag processing, the presentation of synthetic peptides was also enhanced by anti-CD40, indicating that additional mechanisms are involved.
In recent years increasing evidence indicates that many receptors signal while associated with lipid rafts. They provide a mechanism for increasing receptor density, which allow the association with intracellular signal transduction modules that include, among others, G proteins, phospholipases, and their substrates. It has been shown that MHC-II can accumulate in cholesterol-enriched domains (29), which may be necessary for signaling into the APC via activation of tyrosine kinases (52). Moreover, T cell recognition of MHC-II in lipid rafts on DC induces an enhanced response by CD8+ T cells (53). Thus, MHC-II accumulation in lipid rafts is important for these molecules to function as signaling receptors.
The former scenario has only recently been considered for MHC-II molecules as ligands. Indeed, Anderson et al. (29) found that MHC-II accumulation in lipid rafts is necessary for efficient Ag presentation to CD4+ T cells under limiting Ag conditions (29). However, it is not known whether MHC-II molecules need a stimulus to integrate into lipid rafts and whether lipid rafts in nonactivated and activated APC are different. We found that CD40 ligation induces small MHC-II and CD80 containing cholesterol/sphingolipid-enriched rafts to aggregate into larger clusters. Moreover, although we did not do simultaneous staining for CD80 expression, the almost complete colocalization of MHC-II with either GM1 or CD80 suggests that the early association of CD80-MHC-II takes place in lipid rafts. Whether this is due to intracellular preassembly into secretory modules or occurs at the cell surface is not clear. At later times, MHC-II clusters were not disrupted by cholesterol depletion, which correlated with a relative resistance of APC to methyl-
-cyclodextrin in Ag presentation assays. This suggests that these early cholesterol-mediated aggregates further organize into higher order structures, which could be held together by the cytoskeleton. We have not yet tested this formally. In any case, the initial association of MHC-II with CD80 by itself in LK-35.2 cells is not dependent on CD40 ligation.
Costimulator induction has largely been considered the mechanism by which a resting B cell becomes a professional APC (44, 54, 55, 56). In addition to the classical CD80/CD86-CD28-mediated costimulation, other forms of costimulation have been described in CD40-activated B cells (55). We found that CD40-induced aggregation of MHC-II and CD80 on the B cell surface was sufficient to enhance Ag presentation to naive CD4+ T cells. Although LK-35.2 cells have a baseline expression of MHC-II and costimulatory molecules, there was no need for an increase in the baseline levels of costimulation, at least through CD80-CD28, to enhance their ability to activate naive T cells, although more conclusive data await studies with CD86 as well. Thus, it appears that MHC-II plus the low level CD80 clustering in lipid rafts are sufficient for B cells to function as professional APC. Before CD40 ligation, all CD80 was already found in association with MHC-II clusters, with the remaining MHC-II appearing diffuse along the LK-35.2 cell surface.
The mechanism leading to cluster formation after CD40 ligation is not readily clear. Most studies of the functional effects of CD40 ligation have been conducted for longer than the 3-h incubation period used in this study. CD40 ligation is followed by the recruiting of adaptor proteins of the TNF receptor-associated factor family (57). Although the immediate events following TRAF recruitment have not been completely defined, CD40 ligation on B cells induces or inhibits the expression of >100 genes through three main signal transduction pathways that include members the mitogen-activated protein kinase p38 and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase and translocation into the nucleus of members the NF-
B/Rel transcription factors (58). The early appearance of MHC-II/CD80 cluster aggregation after CD40 ligation makes it unlikely to be transcriptionally regulated. On the cell surface, CD40 resides in lipid rafts that also contain other molecules involved in CD40 signaling (59). It will be of relevance to examine whether MHC-II and CD80 reside in the same lipid rafts and if local changes in the organization of signaling modules in these rafts are related to the effects described herein. We are currently undertaking studies to define the signal transduction pathways involved in CD40 ligation-induced MHC-II/CD80 cluster aggregation on B cells.
Why does aggregation of MHC-II/CD80 clusters have such a dramatic impact on the ability of B cells to activate T cells? We suggest that large MHC-II/CD80 clusters provide a higher avidity target that engages greater numbers of TCRs from the start of T cell-APC interaction. This eventually leads to formation of the immunological synapse (60) and indeed provides a better means for reciprocal signaling between T cells and APC, leading to full activation of both cells. It has been recently shown that MHC-II-peptide-containing lipid rafts accumulate at the immunological synapse (61). Our results place CD40 ligation as an important inducer for such accumulation and indicate that in addition to MHC-II, the costimulatory molecule CD80 is included in such raft accumulation. This provides CD4+ T cells with the complete set of signals for proper activation.
Although CD40 ligation is not the initial stimulus for the APC, it is an early event, as CD154 expression by T cells occurs within a few hours after their initial activation by Ag. If our observations are relevant in vivo, we could consider at least two possible scenarios. We favor the view that CD40 ligation could play its main role in Ag presentation shortly after the initial stimulus via TCR, which is responsible for CD154 induction, by enhancing transport of MHC-II to the TCR-APC interphase, leading to synapse formation. This is not opposed to the observation that MHC ligation by the TCR down-modulates peptide-MHC complexes from the cell surface (62), because the increased clustering would occur mainly at the T cell-APC interphase. Thus, cluster induction by CD40 ligation is not needed for the initial interaction. However, for T cell Ag recognition, foreign peptides need to compete against a myriad of self peptides contained within the cell, first to bind to MHC-II and subsequently to be engaged by the appropriate number of TCRs to initiate T cell activation. CD40 ligation would increase the overall flow and nonspecific grouping of MHC-II molecules on the cell surface. The relevant MHC-II-peptide complexes would then be selected among them by the TCR to form the immunological synapse, as it has recently been shown (61). Preliminary findings with LK-35.2 cells that neither TLR-9 activation nor B cell Ag receptor cross-linking provides a stimulus comparable to that of CD40 ligation, suggest that even though CD40 is not the initial stimulus to increase B cell Ag presentation, it still is an early event, and its relevance is supported by the inability of CD40-/- B cells to become professional APC (49).
An alternative explanation could be that the CD40 ligand could be expressed by a bystander cell. This seems unlikely, however, because although CD154 has been reported to be expressed by many cell types (63, 64), the only ones that have been convincingly and reproducibly shown to express CD154 are activated T cells and platelets (65, 66). Platelets are unlikely to be present in the lymphoid interstitium in sufficient numbers to ligate CD40 and activate B cells. Moreover, it is not desirable to trigger the professional Ag-presenting activity of B cells in the absence of the immunizing Ag.
In conclusion, the present studies provide evidence that CD40 ligation enhances the Ag-presenting function of B cells, which is related to an association of TCR and costimulatory receptor ligands on the APC surface. Thus, according to our working model, 1) the initial APC for CD4+ T cells, DC, induce CD154 expression on T cells, mainly via TCR signaling; 2) CD154 on activated CD4+ T cells interacts with CD40 on the resting B cell, which turns into a professional APC in two steps: an initial increase in local MHC costimulator density (rafts), providing a higher avidity ligand, followed by increased expression of CD80 that results in more efficient costimulation, eventually conducing to the formation of the immunological synapse at the T cell-B cell interphase; and 3) reciprocally, MHC-II rafts should allow better signal transduction of TCR-delivered signals into Ag-presenting B cells.
| Acknowledgments |
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| Footnotes |
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2 Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. José Moreno, Research Unit on Autoimmune Diseases, Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI, Apartado Postal A-047, 06703, Coahuila No. 5, Col. Roma, México. E-mail address: jmoreno49{at}prodigy.net.mx ![]()
3 Abbreviations used in this paper: MHC-II, class II MHC molecule; CTB, cholera toxin B; DC, dendritic cell; GM1, ganglioside M1; HEL, hen egg-white lysozyme. ![]()
Received for publication March 3, 2003. Accepted for publication October 1, 2003.
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