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.

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.