T-CELL REPERTOIRE OF NORMAL, REJECTED, AND PATHOLOGICAL CORNEAS - PHENOTYPE AND FUNCTION

The specific immune mechanisms of corneal graft rejection are not comp letely understood. Recently, the technique of growing T-cell lines fro m rejected allografts using recombinant IL-2 has enabled the cells inv olved in allograft rejection to be recognized. In the present study, t his method was applied for the extraction and propagation of T lymphoc ytes from rejected, normal, and diseased corneas. T-cell lines could s uccessfully be grown from rejected and normal corneas, but not from co rneas with keratoconus or pseudophakic bullous keratopathy. The phenot ypic repertoire of the grown cells was studied by FACS scan analysis. Rejected corneas were invaded by a mixture of activated CD4(+) and CD8 (+) T-cell lines, with one population being predominant. In normal cor neas only activated CD8(+) cells with cytotoxic function were cultured . No cells were obtained from diseased corneas. The in vitro function of cell lines was assessed by primed lymphocyte testing. The present s tudy shows that the technique of propagating invading T-cell lines fro m organ grafts can be applied to human corneas, offering a new approac h to understanding the immunological mechanisms occurring inside this immune tissue.