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Unresponsiveness of CD4 + T Cells from a Non‐Responder Strain to HgCl 2 is Not Due to CD8 + ‐Mediated Immunosuppression: an Analysis of the Very Early Activation Antigen CD69
Author(s) -
JIANG Y.,
MÖLLER G.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.934
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1365-3083
pISSN - 0300-9475
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-3083.1996.d01-347.x
Subject(s) - immunosuppression , cytotoxic t cell , cd8 , immunology , antigen , biology , autoimmunity , microbiology and biotechnology , t lymphocyte , interleukin 21 , immune system , in vitro , biochemistry
Injections of HgCl 2 lead to autoimmune manifestations in genetically predisposed rats and mice. In this study, the authors examined the responsiveness of T subsets from different mouse strains to HgCl 2 by tracing their expression of the very early activation antigen CD69. The authors found increased expression of the CD69 antigen on CD4 + T cells from the responder A.SW and BALB/c mice, but not on CD4 + T cells from the non‐responder DBA/2 mice, indicating an activation of T helper cells in the responder strains. However, the CD69 antigen was induced on CD8 + T cells from all strains irrespective whether they were susceptible or resistant to mercury‐induced autoimmunity. Since CD8 + T cells have been described as mediating immunosuppression and as being responsible for the resistance to autoimmune induction by mercury, the authors tested whether CD8 + T cells inhibited the activation of CD4 + T cells by HgCl 2 in the non‐responder strains. However, there was no evidence for a suppressive role of CD8 + T cells from the DBA/2 mice in the response to HgCl 2 . The findings indicate that T helper cells play a central role in the immunological effects of HgCl 2 and unresponsiveness of T helper cells in the nonresponder strains is not due to CD8 + ‐mediated immunosuppression.