The stimulation of low-affinity, nontolerized clones by heteroclitic antigen analogues causes the breaking of tolerance established to an immunodominant T cell epitope
Rf. Wang et al., The stimulation of low-affinity, nontolerized clones by heteroclitic antigen analogues causes the breaking of tolerance established to an immunodominant T cell epitope, J EXP MED, 190(7), 1999, pp. 983-993
H-2K mice injected, intravenously in saline or intraperitoneally in incompl
ete Freund's adjuvant, with large quantities of the immunodominant I-E-k-re
stricted epitope from moth cytochrome c (MCC) 88-103 fail to respond to sub
sequent immunization with this epitope when administered in complete Freund
's adjuvant. This state of tolerance can be broken by immunization with cer
tain MCC 88-103 analogues that are heteroclitic antigens as assessed on rep
resentative MCC 88-103 specific T cell clones. In this paper, the mechanism
of breaking tolerance by heteroclitic antigens was investigated. The follo
wing observations were made: (a) T cell hybridomas derived from tolerance-b
roken animals required higher concentrations of MCC 88-103 to be stimulated
than hybridomas derived from normal immune animals, suggesting that they h
ave T cell receptors (TCRs) of lower affinity; (b) in contrast to normal im
mune animals whose MCC-specific TCRs are typically V beta 3(+)/V alpha 11(), none of the hybridomas derived from tolerance-broken animals expressed V
beta 3, although they were all V alpha 11(+). Also, the V beta complementa
rity determining region 3 (CDR3) regions from the tolerance-broken animals
did not contain the canonical structure and length characteristics of the n
ormal MCC 88-103 immune repertoire; and (c) adoptive transfer and tolerizat
ion of MCC-specific V beta 3(+)/V alpha 11(+) transgenic T cells followed b
y immunization with heteroclitic antigen failed to terminate the state of t
olerance. Collectively, these data strongly suggest that the mechanism invo
lved in breaking tolerance in this system is the stimulation of nontolerize
d, low-affinity clones, rather than reversal of anergy. Further support for
this mechanism was the finding that after activation, T cells apparently h
ave a lowered threshold with respect to the affinity of interaction with an
tigen required for stimulation.