Showing papers by "Erwin W. Gelfand published in 1980"

Polyclonal activation of human lymphocytes in vitro. I. Characterization of the lymphocyte response to a T cell-independent B cell mitogen.

Abstract: The staphylococcal cell wall component protein A (SpA) and formalinized, Cowan I strain Staphylococcal organisms (STA) were compared with the lectins phytohemagglutinin, concanavalin A, and pokeweed mitogen for their ability to trigger proliferation of normal human lymphocytes, lymphocyte subpopulations, and cells from patients with primary immune deficiency diseases. SpA was found to be a potent T cell mitogen, very similar to the other lectins tested. It failed to stimulate purified non-T cells and peripheral blood lymphocytes from patients with different forms of severe combined immunodeficiency disease (SCID). STA, treated to prevent the leakage of soluble SpA during culture, exclusively stimulated non-T cells: the responding cell population was characterized to be E-rosette negative but positive for C3 receptors, surface Ia, a receptor for STA itself, and likely carried surface immunoglobulin. Normal responses to STA were found in patients with the adenosine deaminase-positive form of SCID. In 18 patients with humoral immune deficiency syndromes, the presence of STA responses was correlated with the presence of circulating, surface immunoglobulin-bearing cells. A commercial STA preparation was rendered B cell specific after reformalinization, a procedure that eliminated the shedding of soluble SpA under culture conditions.

The expression of deoxyguanosine toxicity in T lymphocytes at different stages of maturation.

Abstract: Different human T cell populations were assayed for susceptibility of DNA synthesis to inhibition by deoxyguanosine. T lymphocytes from the thymus were most sensitive to inhibition of proliferation by deoxyguanosine (90% inhibition at 10 microM deoxyguanosine). This exquisite sensitivity of thymocytes appeared related to an enhanced ability of these cells for uptake and phosphorylation of deoxyguanosine to deoxyGTP and by their reduced ability to degrade accumulated deoxyGTP. Compared to more mature T lymphocytes and B cells, thymocytes contained the highest level of the salvage enzyme deoxynucleoside kinase and the lowest level of the nucleotide degrading enzyme, 5'-nucleotidase. The present study suggests that the levels of these 2 enzymes can serve as differentiation markers, identifying T cells at various stages of maturation, and that the loss of sensitivity to deoxyguanosine toxicity may be a stepwise process. Further, a deficiency in purine nucleoside phosphorylase may preferentially interfere with T cell maturation at an intrathymic stage of T cell differentiation.

Polyclonal activation of human lymphocytes in vitro-II. Reappraisal of T and B cell-specific mitogens.

Abstract: The capacity of the T cell mitogens phytohemagglutinin (PHA), concanavalin A (Con A), pokeweed mitogen (PWM), and Staphylococcus protein A (SpA) to induce B cell proliferation and differentiation was compared with the B cell mitogen, formalinized Staphylococcus aureus (STA). Lymphocyte subpopulations from normal donors and patients with various immunodeficiency diseases were studied. In the presence of the T cell mitogens, irradiated T cells were capable of providing a helper cell activity that enabled co-cultured B lymphocytes to proliferate in response to these mitogens and to differentiate into IgM-secreting (direct) hemolytic plaque-forming cells (PFC). In the PFC response, radioresistant T-helper and radiosensitive T-suppressor cell activities could be demonstrated. T-suppressor cell activity outweighed helper activity only in nonirradiated co-cultures stimulated with Con A. Patients with severe combined immunodeficiency lacked mitogen-induced helper T cells, whereas patients with various forms of humoral immune deficiency were normal in this respect. These findings and the tissue distribution of the helper activity is aquired early in post-thymic T cell differentiation. The data suggest that experiments with cell lineage-specific lymphocyte mitogens should be considered in the context of more complex cell-cell interactions.

Inhibition of suppressor T-cell development following deoxyguanosine administration

Abstract: The expression of immunodeficiency in patients with specific purine enzyme defects indicates a crucial role of the purine salvage pathway in the acquisition and expression of normal immune function. One current hypothesis links the failure of normal lymphocyte development in these diseases to the accumulation of deoxynucleotide triphosphates. In our studies of human in vitro IgM responses, we observed that antigen-induced T-suppressor cell activity was abrogated in the presence of micromolar concentrations of deoxyguanosine (dGuo). In contrast, more than 1,000-fold higher resistance to dGuo was found for both noin-proliferative T-helper cell activity and the differentiation and proliferation of the precursor B lymphocytes for direct haemolytic plaque forming cells (PFC). To determine whether these observations could have in vivo relevance, we monitored the generation of murine T-suppressor cells, capable of abrogating a primary IgM response. It was found that dGuo (but not guanosine) selectively inhibited the in vivo development of T-suppressor cells.

Microtubule assembly and conanavalin A capping in lymphocytes: reappraisal using normal and abnormal human peripheral blood cells.

Abstract: We have analyzed the assembly of microtubules and the distribution of concanavalin A(Con A)-receptor complexes in the same populations of human peripheral blood T and B lymphocytes. We hoped to resolve the prolonged controversy over the relationship of microtubules to Con A cap formation in lymphocytes and to explain the abnormally high spontaneous and colchicine-induced Con A capping that was observed recently in lymphocytes from a patient with an inherited form of severe combined immunodeficiency disease (SCID) characterized by total immunologic dysfunction despite normal numbers and distribution of T and B cells. The data establish that (i) microtubule disassembly is correlated with enhanced Con A cap formation on normal human lymphocytes; (ii) T and B cells differ significantly from each other and from circulating polymorphonuclear leukocytes with respect to their capping responses after exposure to colchicine; and (iii) there is an abnormal relationship of microtubule assembly to surface topography in the functionally defective SCID cells.

Anti-Suppressor Cell Effects of Lithium in vitro and in vivo

Abstract: Studies of cellular immunity nave recently begun to unravel a highly complex network of regulatory events in which a particular effector function is shown to represent the net result of multiple cell interactions which are modulated by antigenic experience, genetic restrictions, polyclonal effects, and, probably, nutritional and hormonal factors. Because of its complexity and ability to accomodate external and internal stimuli in an adaptive learning fashion, the immune network has been compared to the central nervous system (Jerne, 1974).

Identification of Ia on a subpopulation of human T lymphocytes that stimulate in a mixed lymphocyte reaction.

Abstract: The delineation of discrete subpopulations of human T lymphocytes has permitted preliminary analyses of the complex cellular network regulating the immune response in man We previously showed that a subset of T lymphocytes, designated as theophylline-sensitive because of their inability to bind sheep red blood cells in the presence of the drug, are responsible for antigen-specific suppression or regulation in an in vitro plaque-forming cell assay We now show that 25 to 45% of these theophylline-sensitive T cells were Ia-positive by immunofluorescence with a rabbit antiserum raised against purified B lymphoblast surface antigenic material These data suggested that 4 to 7% of peripheral blood T cells carry Ia determinants The presence of Ia determinants on this T cell subset was confirmed by gel analysis of radioiodinated surface material Furthermore, in mixed lymphocyte culture, the theophylline-sensitive cells demonstrated HLA-D determinants and were 10-fold more potent stimulators than equal numbers of B lymphocytes The presence of Ia determinants on these T cells indicates the expression of major histocompatibility complex-related regulatory gene products on a specific human T lymphocyte subpopulation

Altered Purine and Pyrimidine Metabolism in Erythrocytes with Purine Nucleoside Phosphorylase Deficiency

Abstract: Purine and pyrimidine metabolism was compared in erythrocytes from three patients from two families with purine nucleoside phosphorylase deficiency and T-cell immunodeficiency, one heterozygote subject for this enzyme deficiency, one patient with a complete deficiency of hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase, and two normal subjects. The erythrocytes from the heterozygote subject were indistinguishable from the normal erythrocytes. The purine nucleoside phosphorylase deficient erythrocytes had a block in the conversion of inosine to hypoxanthine. The erythrocytes with 0.07% of normal purine nucleoside phosphorylase activity resembled erythrocytes with hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase deficiency by having an elevated intracellular concentration of PP-ribose-P, increased synthesis of PP-ribose-P, and an elevated rate of carbon dioxide release from orotic acid during its conversion to UMP. Two hypotheses to account for the associated immunodeficiency—that the enzyme deficiency leads to a block of PP-ribose-P synthesis or inhibition of pyrimidine synthesis—could not be supported by observations in erythrocytes from both enzyme-deficient families.