Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to R S Basch.
An amplification of the immunofluorescence technique which uses biotinylated antibody and fluoresceinated avidin is described. By introducing a sandwich technique using fluorescein-conjugated goat anti-avidin, a 5-fold enhancement of staining over the conventional immunofluorescence method is achieved, and the brightness is more than twice that achieved with the simple biotin-fluoresceinated avidin reaction.
Variant cell lines that have lost the Thy-1 antigen have a reduced capacity to induce tumors in syngeneic recipients when compared to Thy-1 positive clones. The negative variants are cloned, cultured cells obtained from the Thy-1.2(theta) positive BALB/c lymphoma RL male 1 in a single-step immunoselection procedure. The reduction appears to be related to an alteration in the host response to the tumor, since both the variant and parental cells induce tumors equally well in irradiated mice. Males are much more susceptible to the inoculated tumor cells, suggesting that the relevant response is restricted to females. A majority of female animals that survive challenge with the variant do not allow growth of the parental tumor when they are injected with a quantity of cells that is uniformly fatal in untreated recipients. Most of the surviving females have an antibody in their sera that is cytotoxic for the variant, its parent, and normal thymocytes. None of the few surviving males had significant titers of the antibody. Cell-mediated immunity directed toward the positive and negative tumor cells was demonstrable in half the surviving animals of both sexes.
Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) expression was examined in the clones of the radiation induced murine leukemia, RL male 1, which differ in Thy-1.2 alloantigen expression and tumourigenicity in syngeneic mice. Both cell lines displayed predominant cytoplasmic localization of TdT and equal sensitivities to specific TdT inhibitors. The R1 male 1.3 + cell line (Thy-1.2 positive and tumourigenic) demonstrated overall higher levels of TdT activity and different elution patterns on phosphocellulose chromatography compared with the RL male 1.4 - (Thy-1.2 negative and poorly tumourgenic) cell line. These findings suggest an association of TdT expression with tumourigenicity properties in leukemic T lymphocytes.
Con A, a known T-cell mitogen, is also mitogenic for resident peritoneal macrophages. The stimulated cells morphologically resemble macrophages and are actively phagocytic. The concentration of con A (30 micrograms/ml) required to stimulate 3H-TdR incorporation is ten times that required for T-cell activation. Con A must be present throughout the entire culture period to produce the maximum effect, and con A-depleted supernatant fluids from con A-stimulated cells cannot replace the con A requirement. Stimulation of 3H-TdR incorporation occurs after a 48-hour lag period and is maximal on the fifth to seventh day of culture. At the peak of the response, 20-30% of the macrophages can be stimulated to incorporate 3H-TdR, but little or no increase in the total number of cells present in the culture occurs. This and pulse-chase experiments indicate that only a single cycle of replication occurs in the stimulated cells. Con A-responsive peritoneal macrophages appear to be a distinct subpopulation and might play a different role in the interaction with T cells and B cells in the immune response than the con A-non-responsive cells.
The inoculation of newborn W/F, Lew, AS and DA rats with Gross murine leukemia virus (G-MuLV) resulted in the prompt appearance of cells with viral protein antigens (VPA) on their surfaces. These were first found in the bone marrow and spleen and later in the thymus gland. As the animals developed, the VPA-positive population expanded and the intensity of the fluorescence increased. In the spleen, the cells with the strongest fluorescence had the properties of T-cells, but in both spleen and bone marrow low levels of VPA were found on non-T-cells. The VPA-positive population expanded long before malignant cells could be detected and, in most animals, the entire T-cell compartment became antigen-positive. These animals were unable to respond to G-MuLV antigens and many eventually developed leukemia. However, some animals apparently broke the tolerance that followed neonatal infection and eliminated VPA-positive cells from their tissues
A method has been developed for the enrichment of the hematopoietic precursors of thymocytes from spleen and bone marrow cells. Up to 40-fold enrichments were obtained resulting in preparations in which as few as 10(5) cells produced prompt repopulation of the thymus of an irradiated mouse. Precursor cells from bone marrow appear to contain the enzyme terminal deoxyribonucleotidyl transferase (Tdt), an agent suggested as a potential somatic mutator. This enzyme (Tdt) was not detectable in any spleen cell preparation examined, including one in which a 40-fold enrichment of thymocyte precursors had been produced. This is the first difference reported between the splenic and bone marrow precursors of thymocytes.
The action of the purified thymic factor, thymopoietin, on populations of post-thymic lymphocytes has been studied. Thymopoietin, at concentrations as low as 1.5 ng/ml, uniquely enhanced the proliferative response of peripheral T cells from lymph node and spleen to allogeneic stimulation. Enhancement of the allogeneic response (MLR) was not produced by several polypeptide hormones, including insulin, ACTH, HCG, or Ubiquitin. Treatment of spleen cells with anti-Thy-1 antiserum almost completely abolished the MLR. Thymopoietin's stimulatory effects could not reverse this. Thymopoietin treatment of Thy-1+-enriched spleen cell populations enhanced the MLR even when thymopoietin was removed as early as 2 min after incubation with responding cells. The interaction of thymopoietin with peripheral Thy-1+ cell populations produced a rapid and transient rise in cyclic GMP levels and slightly decreased cyclic AMP levels. These results suggest that thymopoietin interacts with one or more Thy-1+ subpopulations and that this interaction involves early changes in cyclic nucleotide metabolism.
The presence of thymus-leukemia (TL) antigens on the surfaces of mitochondria isolated from TL+ cells, e.g., RADA 1 leukemia cells, and TL+ normal thymocytes, has been directly demonstrated by immunoelectron microscopy. Reagents used were TL alloantiserum and a hemocyanin conjugate of rabbit antibody to mouse IgG. No hemocyanin labeling was observed on mitochondria obtained from TL- cells, e.g., thymocytes of TL- strains, splenocytes of either TL+ or TL- strains, and TL- leukemia cells. The concurrence of TL antigens on the plasma and mitochondrial membranes was shown by the ability of intact cells to absorb all reactivity toward mitochondria.
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The properties of hematopoietic cells which serve as the precursors of cortical thymocytes in irradiated reconstituted mice have been described. These cells have been termed "prothymocytes." They are 10- to 15-mum diameter cells of low buoyant density. They are nonadherent to glass wool and more resistant to the lytic effects of steroids and gamma-irradiation than their progeny. They lack detectable amounts of the surface markers associated with either B or T cells but do bear at least two antigens recognized by antisera to mouse brain.
Cells obtained from a radiation-induced T-cell lymphoma of BALB/c mice, RLmale-1, were adapted to long-term tissue culture. Clones of cells were obtained in soft agar and a clonally derived population studied for the frequency of mutation in the expression of the surface antigen Thy-1.2 (OC3H) by immunoselection. The mutation rate was 1.05-1.50 X 10(-6) per cell per generation. Antigenic and structural analysis of prototype positive and negative clones demonstrated clear differences between them.
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A quantitative assay for the hematopoietic precursor of thymocytes has been developed. Using this assay the kinetics of appearance of the progeny of transfused bone marrow and spleen cells in the thymus of irradiated (760 R) mice has been studied. Precursor cells are seven to eightfold more common in bone marrow than in spleen and are absent from peripheral lymph nodes. They decline in number as the animals age. When hematopoietic cells are injected immediately after lethal irradiation only a small number of cells actually enter the gland. Their progeny are not detectable in the thymus for 8-12 days. The time of their detection depends both upon the size of the residual endogenous thymocyte population and the number of progenitor cells injected. Evidence has been presented that excludes thymic injury as the basis for the delay in the appearance of donor type cells and indicates that neither the production of a "homing" signal in the irradiated animal nor the development of precursor cells are limiting factors in the rate of thymic repopulation. These studies indicate that only an exceedingly small number (less than 100) of prothymocytes are required to repopulate the thymus of an irradiated mouse. This restricted number of progenitors must produce the entire repertory of T-cell immunologic responsiveness seen in the first weeks after repopulation.
Thymopoietin, a polypeptide hormone isolated from bovine thymus, induced in vitro the differentiation of prothymocytes to cells with the antigenic and functional characteristics of intrathymic thymocytes. These changes included the acquisition of the differentiation antigens TL and Thy-1 (theta) and the ability to respond to the mitogen Con-A. Thymopoietin appears to be highly speicfic in inducing the prothymocyte to be highly specific in inducing the prothymocyte to thymocyte differentiation and does not affect the pluripotential stem cell measured by the colony forming assay (CFU-S), the erythropoietin-sensitive cell or B-cells. Experiments are in progress to determine whether additional hormonal inductive signals are required to complete the differentiation of an immunologically competent T-cell.
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The data presented indicate the existence of a significant pool of radioresistant stem cells which are capable of partially restoring the thymus of heavily irradiated mice. 3-H-TdR incorporation by the thymus of lethally irradiated mice begins 48 to 72 hr after irradiation and increases throughout the next 8 days. By the 9th day after 760 rads, typical corticomedullary architecture has been restored. 890 rads markedly suppressed, but did not totally eliminate this regeneration. Injection of large numbers of syngeneic bone marrow cells immediately after irradiation was without effect on the rate or extent of regeneration. Mice whose bone marrow and spleen were shielded from irradiation showed an identical amount of thymic regeneration as those receiving total body irradiation indicating that the precursor cell pool responsible for the early post irradiation phase of thymic regeneration is most likely an intrathymic population. The cells repopulating the thymus were morphologically indistinguishable from normal thymocytes and were susceptible to cytotoxic antisera against the thymic differentiation antigens Thy-1, TL, LyA2 and LyC2.
Thymin, a purified polypeptide isolated from bovine thymus, was shown to induce the expression of differentiation antigens characteristic of thymocytes [TL and Thy-1 (theta)] when incubated in vitro with mouse bone marrow or spleen cells. This induction occurred in 5-10% of the cells from bone marrow after a 2-hr incubation with subnanogram concentrations of thymin. The induced cells expressed more TL and Thy-1 (theta) antigens than average normal thymocytes.
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