Suppressor factor secreted by T hybridoma established from peripheral blood lymphocytes of a bone marrow transplantation patient. I. Establishment of human T-cell hybridoma and partial characterization of suppressor factor

Homology of partial primary sequences between alpha-enolase and a suppressive lymphokine from human T cells

A relationship is described between TS--a human suppressive lymphokine produced by hybridoma T cells--and alpha-enolase from the U937 monocyte human cell line. A strong homology (92%) was observed by comparing the internal amino acid sequences of 6 TS peptides, corresponding to 52 residues, with the complete sequence of alpha-enolase. The molecular masses of these two molecules were found to be of about 47 kDa and both were detected with the same monoclonal antibody to TS. In contrast, no immunosuppressive activity was detected with the purified enolase fraction, whereas TS did not show any enolase activity. A suppressive monokine secreted by U937 cells was found to be unrelated with TS. Theses results suggest that the TS immunosuppressive factor despite its absence of enzyme activity, belongs to the enolase family.

Ultraviolet-induced suppressor T cells and factor(s) in murine contact photosensitivity. III. Mode of action of T-cell-suppressor factor(s) and interaction with cytokines

The mode of action of T-cell-suppressor factor (TsF) induced by ultraviolet B (UVB) preirradiation in terms of interaction with several cytokines was studied. Suppression of murine contact photosensitivity (CPS) to 3,3',4',5-tetrachlorosalicylanilide (TCSA) by preirradiation of the sensitizing site to low doses of UVB was caused by antigen-specific suppressor T cells (Ts) and was not associated with the generation of efferent limb-acting suppressor cells. TsF released by Ts inhibited the proliferation of immune lymph node (LN) cells in vitro and reduced interleukin (IL)-2 production of these cells in an antigen-specific fashion without affecting the IL-2 receptor (IL-2R) expression. Both rIL-2 and rGM-CSF have the ability to restore CPS responses in the UVB-preirradiated mice when administered after but not before photosensitization. However, rIL-2 but not rGM-CSF counteracted the in vivo inhibitory effect of TsF. rGM-CSF did not affect the density of I-A+ epidermal Langerhans cells (LCs). It was suggested that TsF inhibited IL-2-mediated immune T-cell proliferation, while rGM-CSF reconstituted the CPS by enhancing the function of photodamaged LCs. These results indicate multiple steps of the UVB-induced immunosuppression circuit, each of which seems to be controlled by different immunomodulators.