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Depression of prothymosin‐α production in murine thymus correlates with staphylococcal enterotoxin‐B‐induced immunosuppression
Author(s) -
Low Teresa L.K.,
Pan Tair-Long,
Lin Yee-Shin
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/0014-5793(90)81037-o
Subject(s) - enterotoxin , superantigen , biology , thymosin , microbiology and biotechnology , spleen , in vivo , receptor , antibody , t cell , immunology , immune system , biochemistry , escherichia coli , gene
Prothymosin‐α (ProTα) and thymosin‐β 4 (Tβ 4 ) were isolated from murine thymus and characterized by microsequence analysis. Murine Tβ 4 has an identical sequence to bovine Tβ 4 , whereas murine ProTα is highly homologous to rat ProTα. Murine ProTα differs from rat ProTα at two positions, Glu 100 and Asp 108 of the rat sequence are substituted by aspartic and glutamic acid, respectively, in murine ProTα. The amount of ProTα in murine thymus was found to be reduced after in vivo treatment with staphylococcal enterotoxin‐B (SEB), a superantigen which stimulates T cells bearing specific V β receptors. Results from the anti‐SRBC (sheep erythrocyte) plaque‐forming cell assay showed that the antibody response of the spleen cells from these animals was also suppressed. On the other hand, the amount of Tβ 4 was not changed significantly. Our studies suggest that the suppression of SEB on antibody response correlates with the depression of ProTα production in the thymus.