Role of Tec kinase in nuclear factor of activated T cells signaling.

The Tec protein kinase family includes Btk, Itk, Tec, Rlk and Bmx, which are critically involved in signals mediated by various cytokines and antigen receptors. Btk mutations cause severe immunodeficiencies, with defective B cell function. In T cells, Tec regulates cytokine production. However, the downstream targets of these Tec kinases are poorly defined. Here we report that overexpression of Tec in T cells can regulate gene transcription through the nuclear factor of activated T cells (NF-AT). Using different reporter gene constructs, we establish that Tec in transfected T cells dramatically induced NF-AT-dependent gene transcription, which was prevented by a dominant-negative mutant of NF-AT or by the immunosuppressive drug cyclosporin A. Tec appears to regulate NF-AT nuclear import. In addition, Tec influences cytoplasmic free calcium increase. Taken together, our results identify NF-AT as a major downstream target of Tec kinases that is critically involved in transcriptional gene regulation. These observations highlight signaling pathways regulated by Tec kinases and provide new pharmacological targets to regulate immune functions.

The role of Tec protein-tyrosine kinase in T cell signaling.

The Tec protein-tyrosine kinase family includes Btk, Itk/Tsk/Emt, Tec, Rlk/Txk, and Bmx which are involved in signals mediated by various cytokines or antigen receptors. Itk is expressed primarily in T cells and activated by TCR/CD3, CD28, and CD2. However, the defect in T cell signaling in itk-deficient mice is very modest. Thus, we looked for other Tec family kinases that could be expressed in lymphoid cells and involved in T cell signal transduction. Here, we demonstrate that Tec, expressed in T cells, is activated following TCR/CD3 or CD28 ligation and interacts with CD28 receptor in an activation-dependent manner. This interaction involves the Tec SH3 domain and the proline-rich motifs in CD28. We also show that Tec can phosphorylate p62(dok), one CD28-specific substrate, whereas Itk cannot. Overexpression of Tec but not Itk can enhance the interleukin-2 promoter activity mediated by TCR/CD3 or CD28 stimulation and introduction of a kinase-dead Tec but not Itk can suppress interleukin-2 expression, indicating that Tec is directly involved in T cell activation. Altogether, these data demonstrate that Tec kinase is an integral component of T cell signaling and that the two Tec family kinases, Tec and Itk, have distinct roles in T cell activation.

CD28 can promote T cell survival through a phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase-independent mechanism.

Phosphatidylinositol 3(PI3)-kinase is implicated in various biological responses, including protection from apoptosis, although its role in antigen-induced T cell death and the molecular effectors it triggers remains ill-defined. Here, we investigated the role of PI3-kinase activity in the prevention of T cell receptor/CD3-induced cell death by CD28. PI3-kinase inhibitors blocked the up-regulation of Bcl-X(L) by CD28, without impairing the prevention of T cell receptor/CD3-triggered apoptosis by CD28, hence showing the existence of a cell-survival pathway independent of PI3-kinase activity and up-regulation of Bcl-X(L). Instead, we show that up-regulation of FasL which is instrumental in CD3-induced apoptosis was prevented upon CD28 co-stimulation. These results indicate that PI3-kinase couples CD28 to Bcl-X(L) up-regulation and provide a molecular basis for the role of CD28 in cell survival through a PI3-kinase-independent mechanism including FasL down-regulation.

Mean length of utterance of children with Down syndrome.

Mean length of utterance (MLU) of children with Down syndrome was examined and found to correlate highly with chronological age, r = .87, p less than .001, despite the children's language delays. The correlation was reliable at least up to MLU 3.00. In the 1.00 to 3.50 range, MLU also predicted grammatical complexity.

Expansion of human lymphocyte populations expressing specific immune reactivities. II. A comparison of immune reactivities in human T lymphocyte lines derived from allogeneically primed cultures and maintained with lectins or conditioned medium.

In a previous paper, lectins were shown to allow a strong expansion of in vitro primed cells; among the lectins tested, PKW but not PHA (nor Con A) was found to reactivate CTLs. We then asked two further questions: Could one maintain a long term expansion of human T cells using iterative lectin stimulation? And, if so, could the immune reactivities, once expressed in the original primed cells, also be maintained? We report here that lectins remain potent mitogens for primed cells, and allow good expansion over many cycles, provided fresh irradiated cells (autologous or not to the responder) are added to the cultures. When PKW is used as the iterative mitogen, both the specific proliferation (PLT) and the specific cytotoxicity are maintained after each cycle. When PHA is the iterative stimulant, only the specific proliferation (PLT) is maintained, while no measurable cytolysis is present. However, if iteratively PHA stimulated primed cells are now cultured in the absence of PHA, even without additional specific stimulation, cytolytic activity is recovered from the cultures. In parallel, primed cells iteratively expanded using conditioned medium appear to retain both their specific lytic function and their specific proliferative function. Preliminary data suggest that the cloning efficiency when using lectins is higher than when using conditioned medium.