A prostaglandin-mediated suppressive activity of cord as compared to maternal or other adult adherent cells in OKT3 antibody-induced proliferation

PGE2 production after angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibition

Using OKT3 monoclonal antibody driven T-lymphocyte proliferation, we investigated the effects of plasma 10, 20 and 30% in cell cultures on the proliferation ex vivo after exposure to captopril or enalapril taken orally by healthy volunteers. We also studied the effects of captopril, angiotensin II and bradykinin in vitro. We observed a plasma dependent dual effect of ACE inhibition both ex vivo and in vitro and of bradykinin in vitro being a stimulated proliferation at low (10% plasma) and a suppression of proliferation at high (30% plasma). The suppression was shown to be PGE2 mediated but the nature of the stimulatory signal is unknown. Proliferation was also suppressed by angiotensin II mediated by PGE2, but angiotensin II had no stimulatory effect. The results indicate that the effects of ACE inhibition on OKT3 mAb driven T-lymphocyte proliferation is plasma dependent, class specific for ACE inhibitors and mediated by both the ACE inhibitor itself and by bradykinin. Furthermore, it was shown that indomethacin in combination with an ACE inhibitor or bradykinin converted a suppressive response into proliferation indicating an immunostimulatory activity by indomethacin.

Activation of cord T lymphocytes. II. Cellular and molecular analysis of the defective response induced by anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody

Despite the fact that the percentage of circulating CD3-positive cells is similar in cord and adult blood, the proliferative response induced by anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody (mAb) was impaired in the majority of human cord peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) samples we tested. The cell proliferative defect was associated with low interleukin 2 (IL 2) gene expression and scant IL 2 production. However, interleukin 2 receptor was fully expressed at both the mRNA and protein levels. Such a finding is consistent with the observation that exogenous recombinant IL 2 is able to boost the anti-CD3-mediated response of cord PBMC. Furthermore, when anti-CD3 and phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) were added together, they exerted a very marked synergistic effect on both the proliferation of, and IL 2 production by, cord PBMC. The addition of allogeneic antigen presenting cells plus soluble anti-CD3 or Sepharose-coupled anti-CD3 mAb to the cord T cell cultures had no significant effect on proliferation, whereas both elicited good mitogenesis of adult T cells. Moreover, addition of exogenous recombinant interleukin 1 to anti-CD3-stimulated T cells failed to trigger any proliferation in either adult or cord samples. Since the combination of PMA and calcium ionophore A23187 is effective in triggering optimal proliferation of cord T cells, the defect would seem to be associated with a failure in transmembrane transduction of the activation signals provided by the anti-CD3 stimulus for the cord T cell.