CHARACTERISTICS OF PREVOTELLA-INTERMEDIA SPECIFIC CD4(-CELL CLONES FROM PERIPHERAL-BLOOD OF A CHRONIC ADULT PERIODONTITIS PATIENT() T)

Periodontitis is a chronic destructive inflammatory disease associated with periodontopathic bacteria. In addition, autoantigens such as col lagen and heat shock proteins (hsp) have been suggested to play a role . Established periodontal lesions are characterized by dense infiltrat ions of immune cells such as cytokine-producing CD4(+) and CD8(+) T ce lls. CD4(+) T cells specific for Prevotella intermedia can be isolated from lesional gingiva, suggesting an active role for CD4(+) T cells i n the response to this bacterium. We therefore investigated the charac teristics of a panel of 13 P. intermedia-specific CD4(+) T cells gener ated from the peripheral blood of a patient with chronic adult periodo ntitis. All 13 P. intermedia-specific CD4(+) T cells recognized the an tigens in the context of HLA-DR. The T cell clones were mainly classif ied as Th0, producing comparable amounts of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamm a) and IL-4, and Th2, producing high amounts of IL-4 and almost no IFN -gamma. None of the P. intermedia-specific T cell clones recognized an tigens of the periodontopathic bacteria Actinobacillus actinomycetemco mitans and Porphyromonas gingivalis and of the autoantigens collagen a nd hsp. The reactivity profile of the T cell clones to size-fractionat ed cell envelope antigens of P. intermedia indicated that P. intermedi a-specific CD4(+) T cell clones recognize probably five different anti gen specificities in the context of the MHC class II molecules, DR7 or DR15. These results suggest that a broad panel of cell-associated pro tein antigens play a role in the induction of P. intermedia-specific C D4(+) T cell response.