DIFFERENTIAL ANTIGEN RECOGNITION BY T-CELL POPULATIONS FROM STRAINS OF MICE DEVELOPING POLAR FORMS OF GRANULOMATOUS INFLAMMATION IN RESPONSE TO EGGS OF SCHISTOSOMA-MANSONI

In humans, infection with schistosome helminths can lead to dissimilar forms of clinical disease. Likewise, in the experimental mouse system , identical infection protocols with Schistosoma mansoni cause a more severe granulomatous disease in the C3H strain than in the C57BL/6 str ain. To address this difference, we developed panels of schistosomal e gg antigen (SEA)-specific T cell hybridomas to compare the responses o f C3H and C57BL/6 mice to the major egg antigen p40. All derived C3H T cell hybridomas, despite being clonally distinct and restricted by ei ther I-A(k) or I-E(k), responded to recombinant fragment 15-1 of the p 40 antigen, while none of the C57BL/6 T cell hybridomas did. Consisten t with the observed monoclonal T cell responses, polyclonal lymph node cells from schistosome-infected C3H mice reacted strongly to fragment 15-1, which contrasted sharply with the weak response displayed by th e C57BL/6 strain. Moreover, studies with congenic mice demonstrated th at the strong CD4(+) T cell response to fragment 15-1 was under major histocompatibility complex control and segregated with the H-2(k) hapl otype. These findings suggest that a dominant T cell response against a major egg antigen may represent a risk factor for the development of severe disease.