There is No Correlation Between Function and Lymphokine Production of HBs‐Antigen‐Specific Human CD4+‐Cloned T Cells

摘要

The question whether antigen‐specific human CD4+ T cells can be classified on the basis of appropriate and fixed lymphokine production patterns and their corresponding functions still remains lo be elucidated. We generated ten CD4+T‐cell clones specific for HBsAg from HBsAg‐positive but HBsAb‐negative individuals. Seven of these clones exhibited helper activity for HBsAb response, while the three other clones did not. Both helper‐ and non‐helper‐type T‐cell clones produced interleukin 4 (IL‐4) after antigenic stimulation. By stimulation with phytohaem‐agglutinin (PHA) plus phorbol myristate acetate (PMA). three of the seven helper‐type clones produced interleukin 2 (lL‐2) in addition toiL‐4. However, the other four helper‐type clones did not produce IL‐2 by such stimulation, although they continued the production of IL‐4. All non‐help)er‐type T‐cell clones produced a large amount of IL‐2. and some of them completely became an IL‐2 producer after certain stimulation. These results suggested that both helper‐ and non‐helper‐type CD4+T‐cell clones specific for HBsAg might have no strict pattern of lymphokine production as m the TH1 /TH2 dichotomy of murine CD4+T cells. The data also revealed that lymphokine‐producing capacity of individual cloned T cells