The development and functions of CD4(+) T cells expressing a transgenic TCR specific for an MHC-I-restricted tumor antigenic epitope.
Han X, Ye P, Luo L, Zheng L, Liu Y, Chen L, Wang S.
Key Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China,
Abstract
It has been reported that the ratio of CD4(+) to CD8(+) T cells has no bias in a few class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC-I)-restricted T-cell receptor (TCR)-transgenic mice specific for alloantigens or autoantigens, in which most CD4(+) T cells express an MHC-I-restricted TCR. In this study, we further showed that more than 50% of CD4(+) T cells in MHC-I-restricted P1A tumor antigen-specific TCR (P1ATCR)-transgenic mice could specifically bind to MHC-I/P1A peptide complex. P1A peptide could stimulate the transgenic CD4(+) T cells to proliferate and secrete both type 1 helper T cell and type 2 helper T cell cytokines. The activated CD4(+) T cells also showed cytotoxicity against P1A-expressing tumor cells. The analysis of TCR α-chains showed that these CD4(+) T cells were selected by co-expressing endogenous TCRs. Our results show that CD4(+) T cells from P1ATCR transgenic mice co-expressed an MHC-I-restricted transgenic TCR and another rearranged endogenous TCRs, both of which were functional.
Cell Mol Immunol,2011, 8(4):333-40. 文章全文