Role of IL-1 in the Activation and Inactivation of Human T-Cell Clones: Relevance to Rheumatological Disease
Feldmann M., Essery G., Londei M., Austin P., Trowsdale J., Bodmer W., Lamb JR.
Interleukin-1 has a key role in the initial activation of T cells. However its role, once T cells are fully activated, is not known Human T-cell clones, driven with antigen and antigen-presenting cells once a week, and twice weekly with intcrlcukin-2. are the most activated T cells known. We thus tested whether IL-1 was necessary for the activation of T-cell clones, using mouse L cells (incapable of producing human IL-1) transfected with human HLA-DP genes No requirement for exogenous I L-l was detected for induction of proliferation In contrast to the lack of a requirement for IL-1 in T-cell activation, T-cell tolerance, the state of antigen-specific antigen-induced unresponsivcness was partly blocked by IL-1 indicating that these cells can still respond to IL-1 in the appropriate circumstances Blockage of tolerance induction by IL-1 may be one of the mechanisms underlying the maintenance of the autoimmune process. © 1985, Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.