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Endothelial Cells Enhance the Human Pokeweed Mitogen Lymphocyte Response
Author(s) -
Shanahan William R.,
Weston Donna M.,
Korn Joseph H.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
journal of leukocyte biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.819
H-Index - 191
eISSN - 1938-3673
pISSN - 0741-5400
DOI - 10.1002/jlb.37.3.305
Subject(s) - pokeweed mitogen , biology , lymphocyte , immune system , peripheral blood mononuclear cell , immunology , neovascularization , in vivo , endothelial stem cell , cell growth , cell , thymidine , microbiology and biotechnology , angiogenesis , in vitro , cancer research , biochemistry
The effect of endothelial cells (EC) on lymphocyte mitogen responses was examined. Irradiated or mitomycin C treated EC were co‐cultured with allogeneic peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBM), and proliferative responses to pokeweed mitogen (PWM) and phytohemagglutinin (PHA) were assessed by 3 H‐thymidine incorporation. Compared to lymphocyte responses in the absence of EC, EC co‐culture enhanced PWM responses at 72 hours by 55 ± 28%, 103 ± 24%, and 96 ± 9% at EC:PBM ratios of 1:30, 1:10, and 1:3, respectively. The EC co‐culture also resulted in signficant lymphocyte responses to otherwise submitogenic doses of PWM (10 −4 μ g/ml) as well as an accelerated kinetics of response. There was no effect of EC on PHA responses. The EC effect appeared not to require cell contact for its expression; however, supernates of EC cultures were not capable of reproducing the effect. On a cell‐for‐cell basis, EC were more potent in enhancing responses of adherent‐cell‐depleted lymphocytes than either allogeneic or syngeneic monocytes. Fibroblasts could not substitute for EC in enhancing PWM response, suggesting that the effect was not a nonspecific feeder phenomenon. The EC may play a role in modulating some immune responses in vivo, especially those occurring in areas of inflammation, neovascularization, and endothelial cell proliferation.