Biochemical events initiated by exposure of human T lymphocyte clones to immunogenic and tolerogenic concentrations of antigen.
Zanders ED., Feldmann M., Lamb JR.
Interleukin 2-dependent helper T cells, cloned from human peripheral blood lymphocytes activated with strain A influenza virus hemagglutinin, proliferate in response to a 24-residue synthetic peptide (p20) of hemagglutinin, but become unresponsive to a subsequent immunogenic challenge when pretreated with a high concentration of p20. This phenomenon is associated with a loss of the T3 antigen complex, presumably in association with the T cell receptor. We have examined this phenomenon in more detail and show that in addition to changes in the expression of T3 molecules on the cell surface, high doses of p20 cause changes in the expression of certain biosynthetically and surface-labeled proteins, although total DNA and protein synthesis was unaltered. Thus, by examining these biochemical phenomena we can begin to define some of the processes which occur during antigen activation of human T lymphocytes at the clonal level.