Search

T cell receptor/CD3 ligation induces apoptosis in semimature CD4+8-HSA+ thymocytes, and this helps establish immunological tolerance and constitutes one of the safeguards against autoimmune disease. We analyzed several knockout and transgenic mouse lines and found that T cell receptor/CD3-ligation-induced killing of semimature thymocytes occurred independently of Fas and "death receptor" signaling in general but required the proapoptotic BH3-only protein Bim and could be inhibited by Bcl-2. Loss of Apaf-1 or caspase-9, which act downstream of the Bcl-2 family protein family, provided only minor protection, indicating that the "apoptosome" functions as an amplifier rather than as an essential initiator of this death program. These results reveal the mechanisms of apoptosis in negative selection of semimature thymocytes and have implications for immunological tolerance and autoimmunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peripheral activation can cause bystander thymocyte death by eliciting a "cytokine storm." This event complicates in vivo studies using exogenous ligand-induced models of negative selection. A stable transgenic model that selectively eliminates peripheral CD4 cells has allowed us to analyze negative selection as direct cognate events in two T cell receptor transgenic mice, OT-II and DO11. Whereas cognate peptide induced a massive deletion in doublepositive (DP) cells in mice with peripheral CD4 cells, this DP deletion was modest in mice lacking peripheral CD4 cells. Using BrdUrd and annexin V staining, we found that negative selection primarily occurs in a cohort of DP cells and the absence of single-positive (SP) cells is largely caused by reduction in the cohort of DP precursors. Moreover, the fates of DP cells and SP cells after antigen exposure were vastly different. Whereas SP cells up-regulated uniformly their CD69 and CD44 levels, increased their cell size, and survived after antigen exposure, DP cells had less CD69 and CD44 upregulation, no size change, and promptly died. Thus, negative selection represents an "abortive" activation different from activation-induced cell death of mature T cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]