IL-7 is Critical for Homeostatic Proliferation and Survival of Naïve T Cells

In T cell-deficient conditions, naïve T cells undergo spontaneous "homeostatic" proliferation in response to contact with self-MHC/peptide ligands. With the aid of an in vitro system, we show here that homeostatic proliferation is also cytokine-dependent. The cytokines IL-4, IL-7, and IL-1...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2001-07, Vol.98 (15), p.8732-8737
Main Authors: Tan, J T, Dudl, E, LeRoy, E, Murray, R, Sprent, J, Weinberg, K I, Surh, C D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Biological Sciences
CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes - cytology
CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes - metabolism
CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes - cytology
CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes - metabolism
Cell Division
Cell Survival
Cells
Cultured cells
Cytokines
Humans
Immunology
Interleukin-7 - genetics
Interleukin-7 - metabolism
Ligands
Lymphoid tissue
Mice
Mice, Inbred C57BL
Mice, Knockout
Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 - metabolism
Receptors
Spleen
Spleen cells
T cell antigen receptors
T lymphocytes
Transgenic animals
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In T cell-deficient conditions, naïve T cells undergo spontaneous "homeostatic" proliferation in response to contact with self-MHC/peptide ligands. With the aid of an in vitro system, we show here that homeostatic proliferation is also cytokine-dependent. The cytokines IL-4, IL-7, and IL-15 enhanced homeostatic proliferation of naïve T cells in vitro. Of these cytokines, only IL-7 was found to be critical; thus, naïve T cells underwent homeostatic proliferation in IL-4-and IL-15-hosts but proliferated minimally in IL-7-hosts. In addition to homeostatic proliferation, the prolonged survival of naïve T cells requires IL-7. Thus, naïve T cells disappeared gradually over a 1-month period upon adoptive transfer into IL-7-hosts. These findings indicate that naïve T cells depend on IL-7 for survival and homeostatic proliferation.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.161126098