Effect of Interleukin-4 on Cytolytic T Cells

Abstract

Recent studies indicate that interleukin-4 (IL-4) is a potent T-cell growth factor which may have a significant stimulatory effect on alloreactive cytolytic T lymphocytes (CTL). In this study, it was found that exposure of a recombinant retrovirus (RVpC)-specific, MHC-restricted, polyclonal CTL line to IL-4 resulted in the generation of CTL which efficiently lysed RVpC-infected as well as uninfected autologous target cells. A number of CTL cloned lines was generated from the parental line grown for 2 weeks with autologous stimulator cells in IL-4-containing media which again lysed RVpC-expressing as well as uninfected autologous target cells but not their allogeneic HLA-mismatched counterparts.

These results extend previous observations in allogeneic systems and suggest that, in a syngeneic system, IL-4 may stimulate the recruitment of autoreactive CTL in vitro. This is a previously unrecognised property of IL-4, the in vivo significance of which remains to be established.