Impaired T cell functions during amphibian metamorphosis: IL-2 receptor expression and endogenous ligand production

Resistance to cancer in amphibians: a role for apoptosis?

The rarity of spontaneous cancer in amphibians, and the difficulty of inducing cancer in these lower vertebrates, suggest that they possess an effective system for resistance to the development of cancer. The first part of this narrative presents evidence for cancer resistance in amphibians, and then a variety of studies designed to help understand the physiological basis for this resistance are reviewed. Here, our emphasis is on evidence with regard to the role that apoptosis might play.

Regeneration or scarring: an immunologic perspective

Complete regeneration of complex tissues and organs is usually precluded by fibrotic reactions that lead to scarring. Fish, salamanders, and larval anurans are among the few vertebrates capable of regenerating lost appendages, and this process seems to recapitulate ontogenic development of the structure in most respects. Recent work has revealed a capacity for excellent regeneration in certain mammalian tissues: embryonic or fetal skin and the ear of the MRL mouse. Analyses of these two systems suggest that processes of regenerative growth and patterning for the formation of new structures such as hair follicles may involve modulation of the inflammatory response to the injury in a way that reduces fibrosis and formation of scar tissue. We review evidence that this modulation includes changes in cytokine signaling and may involve properties of the extracellular matrix mediated by factors that include hyaluronic acid and "anti-adhesive substrates" such as tenascin-C. New studies and classic work on the capacity for limb regeneration in amphibians are then reviewed, focusing on the loss of this ability in prometamorphic anuran hindlimbs and the view that changing properties of the immune system may also underlie the declining regenerative potential in this system. Finally, we review recent work in comparative and developmental immunology, which raises the possibility that phylogenetic changes in regenerative capacity may be the result of evolutionary changes in cellular activities of the immune system.

Interleukin-2-induced mortality during the metamorphosis of Xenopus laevis

In anuran metamorphosis, histoincompatible adult cells arise within an immunocompetent larval body. However, the larvae are unresponsive to these altered-self cells. The basis for this tolerance is an issue of considerable interest. While a loss of tolerance in mammalian pregnancy may initiate localized abortion, since the entire metamorphic amphibian is involved, there is the potential for total body self-destruction. Metamorphosing Xenopus laevis, the South African clawed toad, produce an internal corticosterone environment that induces T-cell anergy. This impairment may save the animal from immune self-destruction. Here we examine the capacity of recombinant gene produced human interleukin 2 (IL-2) to substitute for, or restore the level of autologous IL-2, as a further test of whether the altered-self tolerance found during metamorphosis may rely on corticosteroid-induced anergy. We find that the capacity of rIL-2 to break this tolerance and stimulate mortality is low, unless it is accompanied by antigenic co-stimulation. A study of sections of experimental and control animals revealed lymphocyte and mast cell increases within the kidney, particularly in the region of the coelomoduct, perhaps reflecting autoimmune reactivity responsible for the mortality.

The development of peripheral TNP-tolerance and suppressor function in Xenopus laevis, the South African clawed toad

In adult Xenopus laevis, inducer- and effector-suppressor functions are located in the spleen. These peripheral suppressor functions must be established at this location near the end of metamorphosis, since both functions are in the thymus in premetamorphic and in developmentally-blocked metamorphosing larvae. This study examined whether TNP-conjugated self-antigens resulting from exposure to trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS), will stimulate TNP-tolerance in premetamorphic, metamorphic, and in developmentally-blocked metamorphosing larvae. Premetamorphic and developmentally-blocked larvae produce little TNP-tolerance or peripheral suppressor function. However, when TNBS exposure includes the late stages of the metamorphic period, both TNP-tolerance and splenic anti-hapten suppressor function are demonstrable. Removal of suppressor function with cyclophosphamide prevents expression of tolerance, thus, they are functionally related. Suppressor function and tolerance both differentiate during the late metamorphic stages when new adult antigens are being expressed and incorporated into a library of self.

Apoptosis in the thymus of developing Xenopus laevis

Metamorphosis in Xenopus laevis is a time when thyroxine and glucocorticoid levels rise, dramatic morphological and physiological changes take place, and tolerance is established to newly expressed adult antigens. In vitro exposure of thymocytes tested at different metamorphic stages, to the T-cell lectin, phytohemagglutinin (PHA), stimulates increased apoptosis, but incubation with the synthetic glucocorticoid, dexamethasone (DEX), fails in this regard. Altered-self antigenicity, following trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS) treatment, increases apoptosis only in the late stages of metamorphosis. Developmentally blocked metamorphosing larvae demonstrate low thymic apoptotic rates that are also unaffected by in vitro exposure to DEX or by in vivo exposure to thyroxine, but are increased by PHA and in some individuals by TNBS. When released from blockade, their thymic apoptotic rates rise as progress through metamorphosis is renewed. Larval thymic apoptosis is glucocorticocoid- and thyroxine insensitive, but is lectin and altered-self antigen activated, particularly during postclimax stages.

Apoptosis in thymus of adult Xenopus laevis

Thymocyte apoptosis in adult Xenopus laevis is demonstrated on agarose gels and is quantified by propidium iodide incorporation using flow cytometry. Basal apoptotic levels are increased after in vitro exposure to a glucocorticoid, dexamethasone (DEX), and to the lectin, phytohemagglutinin (PHA). To determine the role that newly introduced antigenic determinants may play in this regard, a repertoire of altered-self antigens was created by exposing thymuses in vitro to trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS) thereby derivatizing self-cells and proteins via 2,4,6-trinitrophenyl-acetic acid conjugation. An increase in apoptosis in TNBS-treated thymuses is observed. Thus, the thymocytes of adult Xenopus laevis are susceptible to apoptosis when induced by a glucocorticoid, a lectin, and by altered self, antigen activation.