CD8 T lymphocytes (CTL) responsive to immunodominant minor histocompatibility (minor H) Ags are thought to play a disproportionate role in allograft rejection in MHC-identical solid and bone marrow transplant settings. Although many studies have addressed the mechanisms underlying immunodominance in models of infectious diseases, cancer immunotherapy, and allograft immunity, key issues regardin...

The immune system is involved in the development of neuropathic pain. In particular, the infiltration of T-lymphocytes into the spinal cord following peripheral nerve injury has been described as a contributor to sensory hypersensitivity. We used the spared nerve injury (SNI) model of neuropathic pain in Sprague Dawley adult male rats to assess proliferation, and/or protein/gene expression leve...

The ability of neural stem/progenitor cells (NSCs) to self-renew, migrate to damaged sites, and differentiate into neurons has renewed interest in using them in therapies for neurodegenerative disorders. Neurological diseases, including viral infections of the brain, are often accompanied by chronic inflammation, whose impact on NSC function remains unexplored. We have previously shown that chr...

T lymphocytes differentiate in discrete stages within the thymus. Immature thymocytes lacking CD4 and CD8 coreceptors differentiate into double-positive cells (CD4(+)CD8(+)), which are selected to become either CD4(+)CD8(-)helper cells or CD4(-)CD8(+) cytotoxic cells. A stage-specific transcriptional silencer regulates expression of CD4 in both immature and CD4(-)CD8(+) thymocytes. We show here...

Peripheral blood T cell phenotypes have been analysed in serial samples from patients with multiple sclerosis, their unaffected relatives and controls using a panel of antibodies chosen to distinguish T suppressor and activated suppressor cells from other CD8 lymphocytes. Overall, the percentage of Leu 2a cells correlated with alterations in the Leu 2a/15 suppressor sub-population (r = 0.79, p ...

Antisera prepared against papain-digested spleen cell membranes were known to by cytotoxic for normal and neoplastic human B lymphocytes and for a majority of acute and chronic myeloid leukemic cells. It is now shown that these antisera are also cytotoxic for normal myeloid stem cells (CFU-C), thus providing a probable explanation for their occurrence in myeloid neoplasia.

T lymphocytes that are activated in the autologous mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) have suppressor activity. Concanavalin A (Con A) augments the suppressor activity generated in cultures containing both T and non-T lymphocytes and can induce suppressor activity in T-lymphocyte preparations that contain too few (10%) non-T cells to generate a significant autologous MLR. However, when such T-lymp...

BY55 is a human cell surface molecule whose expression is restricted to NK cells, a subset of circulating CD8+ T lymphocytes, and all intestinal intraepithelial T lymphocytes. Here, we report that BY55 is a novel NK receptor showing broad specificity for both classical and nonclassical MHC class I molecules, and that optimal binding requires a prior aggregation of MHC class I complexes. Using B...

The thymus contains an extensive extracellular matrix. Although thymocytes express integrins capable of binding to matrix molecules, the functional significance of the matrix for T cell development is uncertain. We have shown that the matrix is associated with thymic fibroblasts which are required for the CD44+ CD25+ stage of double negative (CD4-8-) thymocyte development. The survival of cells...

Memory T lymphocytes divide in vivo in the absence of antigen maintaining a pool of central memory (T(CM)) and effector memory cells (T(EM)) with distinct effector function and homing capacity. We compared human CD4+ naïve T, T(CM) and T(EM) cells for their capacity to proliferate in response to cytokines, which have been implicated in T cell homeostasis. Interleukin (IL)-7 and IL-15 expanded w...