Allergy.  1995 Mar;15(1):75-84.

Characterization of Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus-specific T cell clones from bronchial asthmatics

• Koh YS
• Oh SH
• Yoo B
• Moon HB
• Cho YJ
• Hong SJ

Abstract

T cells play a central role in IgE synthesis and airway inflammation in asthmatic patients. In order to characterize antigen-specific T cell clones, we established Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus(D.p)-specific and purified protein derivatives(PPD)-specific T cell clones, and investigated their cytokine production profile in response to the antigenie and nonspecific stimulation. We established six D.p-specific T cell clones from the peripheral blood of two atopic asthmatics and seven PPD-specific T cell clones from one PPD sensitized aymptomatic individual and two pulmonary tuberculosis patients using limiting dilution method. We analyzed the ability of T cell clones to produce IL-4, IFNgamma and their IL-2R expression upon stimulation with D.p, PPD or PHA plus TPA. Only one D.p-specific T cell clone produced IL-4 upon stimulation with D.p, whereas three clones produced both IL-4 and IFNgamma upon stimulation with PHA plus TPA, Four PPD-specific T cell clones produced IFNgamma upon stimulation with PPD, five clones produced IFNgamma upon stimulation with PHA plus TPA, but none of them produced IL-4 regardless of stimulation. Two of five D.p-specific T cell clones and one of four PPD-specific T cell clones showed more than 200 % increass in IL- 2R expression upon stimulation with each antigen. These data showed that some of D.p-specific T cell clones were able to produce both IL-4 and IFNr after nonspecific stimulation, but PPD specific T cell clones produced only IFNr regardless of stimulation. This suggests that D. p-specific T cell clones have the ability to produce TH1 type cytokines depending on the stimulation.

MeSH Terms

Clone Cells*
Cytokines
Humans
Immunoglobulin E
Inflammation
Interleukin-4
Pyroglyphidae*
T-Lymphocytes
Tuberculosis, Pulmonary
Cytokines
Immunoglobulin E
Interleukin-4