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Host defenses against experimental listeriosis in mice involve neutrophils, macrophages, NK cells, and alpha beta T cells. Recently gamma delta T cells have also been implicated in antilisterial resistance. However, their specific role has remained unclear. Here we show that efficient resistance to infection by this bacterium depends on the functions of both alpha beta and gamma delta T cells in both primary and secondary responses. We also present evidence that these functions are complementary. In the livers of alpha beta T cell-depleted mice, bacteria grow to large numbers within hepatocytes but are infrequently found extracellularly. Granulomatous lesions are more frequent and somewhat larger than in normal controls, but remain focal. Neutrophils are absent from liver lesions in these mice. In contrast, the livers of gamma delta T cell-depleted mice contain many extracellular bacteria, but do not show hepatocytes containing large numbers of Listeria. Liver lesions in gamma delta T cell-depleted mice are far more extensive than in normal controls or in alpha beta T cell-depleted mice, and contain large numbers of neutrophils. Particularly in secondary listeriosis, gamma delta T cell-depleted mice show vast coalescent areas of necrotic liver parenchyma within 48 h after infection. Because the bacterial numbers in gamma delta T cell-depleted mice remain lower than in alpha beta T cell-depleted mice, increased mortality in the former may be in part caused by liver failure. We conclude that gamma delta T cells are required to control inflammatory reactivity and to prevent excessive liver damage during the immune response to Listeria monocytogenes.

The juxtaposition of maternal and fetal tissues in the hemochorial placenta has led to speculation that maternal recognition of fetal Ags present on trophoblasts might play an important role in reproductive biology. We report here for the first time such recognition of trophoblasts by T lymphocyte hybridomas representative of certain cells present in the maternal decidua. Trophoblast recognition is TCR dependent and is mediated by members of the V gamma 1+ subset of gamma delta T lymphocytes, a population that we previously have shown to be associated with heat shock protein-60 reactivity. Recognition occurred in experiments in which trophoblast clones or freshly prepared trophoblasts were used and requires cell-cell interaction. Although the maternal-fetal immune relationship typically has been cast in terms of an allograft, the T cell recognition of trophoblasts as described herein is not MHC-restricted, inasmuch as freshly prepared trophoblasts from beta 2-microglobulin-deficient mice were found to be stimulatory. Furthermore, the trophoblast ligand that mediates this recognition is probably a conserved mammalian molecule, because a human trophoblast cell line is also stimulatory. Our findings suggest a novel form of T cell recognition, and may provide an enhanced understanding of the maternal-fetal immune relationship.

Mouse gamma delta T cell hybridomas from various strains that express a TCR-V gamma 1/V delta 6 respond weakly to an autologous Ag and more strongly to a short segment of the mycobacterial heat shock protein-60 (HSP-60). However, V gamma 1/V delta 6 hybridomas derived from AKR mice show greatly reduced or absent responses to these stimuli. To determine whether the lack of response in these AKR hybridomas is caused by polymorphisms found in the expressed AKR gamma and TCR-delta genes or, instead, stems from other genes in AKR, we crossed an AKR mouse with a responder mouse, C57BL/10 (B10), and prepared hybridomas from F1 progeny. Expression of an AKR V gamma 1-J gamma 4-C gamma 4 gene correlated with nonresponsiveness, whereas expression of a B10 V gamma 1-J gamma 4-C gamma 4 gene in most hybridomas ensured responses to both self Ag and the HSP-60 peptide. An allelic difference in the expressed V gamma 6 gene was irrelevant to these responses. Moreover, transfection of a functional B10 V gamma 1-J gamma 4-C gamma 4 gene into an F1 hybridoma variant that had lost the AKR version of this gene restored responses. The allelic gamma gene products differ at nine amino acids in the V region, and three amino acids in the C region. In addition, the AKR C gamma 4 region contains a 16-amino acid insertion. We propose that amino acid differences among those encoded by the AKR V gamma 1-J gamma 4-C gamma 4 gene are responsible for the lack of response, and reduce the ability of the TCR-gamma delta to bind the relevant Ag.

Hybridomas representing the V gamma 1-positive subset of murine gamma delta T cells secrete lymphokines in response to synthetic peptides representing a short segment of the mycobacterial 60-kDa heat shock protein (HSP-60). Here we show the TCR dependency of this response by transfection of productively rearranged TCR genes derived from an HSP-60 reactive gamma delta T cell hybridoma. We also have defined structural requirements for the stimulatory peptide. The smallest HSP-60 peptide capable of stimulating these hybridomas is seven amino acids long, representing positions 181-187, and having the sequence FGLQLEL. Amino acid-substituted derivatives of this peptide, and another containing the same core, p180-190, revealed amino acids essential for stimulatory activity. Phenylalanine in position 181 and leucine in position 183 seem to be required for stimulation of all HSP-60 reactive cells, whereas others are only required by some. Clonal differences in the responses to these peptides provide indirect evidence for cognate TCR-peptide interactions. The smallest stimulatory peptide, p181-187, represents an area not well conserved among HSP-60 molecules of other species, and stimulates a mycobacteria-specific response unlike the earlier observed cross-reactive responses of the same hybridomas with longer HSP-60 peptides derived from mycobacteria and other species (our manuscript in preparation). We propose that the TCR-dependent multiclonal gamma delta T cell response to HSP-60 peptides and derivatives, which in some ways resembles superantigen responses and in other ways resembles responses to conventional Ag, may be a separate, third type of Ag response by T cells.

Murine V gamma 5 and V gamma 6+ T lymphocytes develop sequentially in the thymus during fetal and newborn life, giving rise to intraepithelial lymphocytes of the epidermis and female reproductive tract. In analyzing a panel of gamma delta T cell hybridomas derived from various tissues, we found that all V gamma 6+ cells tested (n = 25) expressed V gamma 5-C gamma 1 mRNA, whereas none of a panel of V gamma 6- cells analyzed (n = 33) expressed this mRNA. V gamma 6 mRNA was rare in V gamma 5+ cells (1 of 9), and absent in all other gamma delta T cells (n = 10). These findings suggest that most, if not all, V gamma 6-TCR+ lymphocytes arise from precursor cells that have previously rearranged the V gamma 5 gene, and indicate that V gamma 5 and V gamma 6+ lymphocytes belong to a common, distinct lineage that does not give rise to other gamma delta T cells.