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Clinical and Vaccine Immunology, May 2006, p. 547-552, Vol. 13, No. 5
1071-412X/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/CVI.13.5.547-552.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Advanced Laboratory of Public Health/Gonçalo Moniz Research Center (CPqGM), Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ), Salvador, Bahia, Brazil,1 Microbiology and Immunoregulation of Integrate Laboratory/Gonçalo Moniz Research Center (CPqGM), Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ), Salvador, Bahia, Brazil,2 Neurology and Neurosurgery Foundation, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil,3 Bahiana School of Medicine and Public Health, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil4
Received 12 July 2005/ Returned for modification 11 August 2005/ Accepted 16 March 2006
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Two diseases are clearly associated with HTLV-1 infection: adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (6, 26, 34) and HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (5, 24). Although 95% of infected people remain asymptomatic (7), there is evidence that HTLV-1 has a much broader spectrum of disease manifestations, such as uveitis (20), arthritis (8, 12), polymyositis (22), lymphocytic interstitial pneumonia (31), and infective dermatitis in children (15). Severe immunosuppression is well documented in patients with adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (10, 19). However, a growing body of literature suggests that many HTLV-1-infected individuals show chronic immunosuppression, even in the absence of malignant disease. HTLV-1-infected individuals are more susceptible to several infectious diseases, such as strongyloidiasis (1, 30), Hansen's disease (11), and tuberculosis (21, 25). In addition, they have reduced cutaneous delayed-type hypersensitivity responses to purified protein derivative (PPD) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (14, 23, 33, 36).
The immunologic hallmark of HTLV-1-infected individuals is a spontaneous in vitro proliferation of their peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) (without any added antigen) observed in approximately fifty percent of patients (13, 27, 29). The memory CD4+ CD45RO+ subset is the principal T-cell population involved in this phenomenon (29). In this study, we evaluated the cellular immune responses of HTLV-1-infected individuals (with or without PBMC spontaneous proliferation) against candidin, cytomegalovirus (CMV), PPD, and tetanus toxoid (TT) recall antigens.
We observed that HTLV-1-infected individuals had reduced stimulation indexes to recall antigens, even when their PBMC did not spontaneously proliferate. On the other hand, only the individuals with spontaneous PBMC proliferation (SP+) had polyclonal T-cell activation (as shown by the study of T-cell receptor Vß [TCR-Vß] families) and an increase in the proportion of CD4 T cells expressing CD45RO.
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Media and reagents. RPMI 1640 medium (Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, MO) was supplemented with 2 mM L-glutamine, 1% nonessential amino acids, 1 mM sodium pyruvate, 100 U/ml penicillin, 100 µg/ml streptomycin, and pooled human AB serum (10%) (Sigma).
Cells. PBMC from HTLV-infected individuals and healthy blood donors were obtained from heparinized venous blood samples by Ficoll-Hypaque density gradient centrifugation (Pharmacia Biotech, Uppsala, Sweden). All experiments were performed with freshly isolated PBMC.
Flow cytometry. For direct labeling, 50-µl portions of whole-blood samples from HTLV-infected individuals and healthy blood donors were incubated with antibodies for 30 min at room temperature. Erythrocytes were subsequently lysed with fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) lysing solution (Becton-Dickinson Immunocytometry System, San Jose, CA). Cells were then washed three times in 2 ml of phosphate-buffered saline containing 1% bovine serum albumin. After a final wash, cells were fixed in phosphate-buffered saline containing 4% paraformaldehyde. In order to quantify CD4 and CD8 T cells, the following monoclonal antibodies were used: fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-labeled anti-CD3 (Immunothec, a Beckman Coulter Company), phycoerythrin (PE)-labeled anti-CD4 (BD Pharmingen Technical), and phycoerythrin-cyanin-labeled anti-CD8 (Immunothec). To analyze CD4 T-cell memory and naïve subsets, cells were stained with phycoerythrin-cyanin CD4, PE-labeled CD45RO, and FITC-labeled CD45RA (Immunothec). We studied TCR-Vß repertoires in five HTLV-1-infected individuals with PBMC with spontaneous proliferation and five HTLV-1-infected individuals with PBMC without spontaneous proliferation (SP). To study TCR-Vß family expression on T lymphocytes, cells were analyzed for surface expression of peridinin chlorophyll protein-labeled anti-CD4 (clone RPA-T4; Becton Dickinson), PE-labeled anti-CD8 (clone RPA-T8; Becton Dickinson), and FITC-labeled anti-TCR-Vß (clones Vß 2 [E22E7.2], Vß 3.1 [LE-89], Vß 5.1 [IMMU 157], Vß 5.2 [36213], Vß 6.1 [CRI 304.3], Vß 8 [56CS.2], Vß 11 [C21], Vß 12 [VER2.32.1], Vß 13.1 [IMMU 222], Vß 13.6 [JU-74], Vß 16 [TAMAYA 1.2], Vß 17 [E17.5F3.15.13], Vß 20 [ELL 1.4], Vß 21.3 [IG 125], and Vß 22 [IMMU 546]; Immunotech). Analyses were performed using a FACSort and Cell Quest software (Becton Dickinson, Mountain View, Calif.). At least 105 events were analyzed per sample.
Antigen-specific and nonspecific proliferation assays.
Antigen-specific and nonspecific proliferation assays were performed with unfractionated PBMC. The PBMC were cultured in RPMI 1640 culture medium with 10% AB serum, using 96-well U-bottom culture plates (Costar, Cambridge, MA) in triplicate at 37°C in a 5% CO2 humidified atmosphere for 5 days. Briefly, 105 cells/well were cultured in the presence of purified candidin (25 µg/ml; Sanofi Pasteur, France), PPD of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (2 µg/ml; Statens Serum Institute, Denmark), and CMV (10 µg/ml; Behring, Marburg, Germany), all kindly provided by Brigitte Autran, and TT (1 µg/ml) kindly provided by Daniel Scott, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France. Antigens were dialyzed and frozen prior to use. Controls consisted of supplemented medium. After 5 days of culture, cells were pulsed overnight with 1 µCi [3H]thymidine (specific activity, 2 Ci/mmol; ICN, Costa Mesa, CA). Incorporated [3H]thymidine was measured with a liquid scintillation beta counter (matrix 9600 direct beta counter; Packard). Results were expressed as mean counts per minute. The stimulation index represents the ratio of mean counts obtained in the presence of antigen to mean counts obtained without antigen. A stimulation index of
3 indicated a positive proliferative response. Therefore, in this study, a mean counts per minute of
500 for nonstimulated cells (i.e., three times the mean counts per minute for uninfected control nonstimulated cells, namely, 159 ± 138 cpm; range, 6 to 462) was considered spontaneous proliferation of PBMC.
Statistical analyses. Data are expressed as means and standard deviations. We compared mean values of the percentages of CD4 and CD8 T-cell subsets and stimulation indexes of proliferative responses to recall antigen for the three groups (patients with spontaneous proliferation of PBMC, those without spontaneous proliferation, and controls) using the Kruskal-Wallis test. If a significant difference was found, a Mann-Whitney U test was performed. The statistical analysis of TCR-Vß was performed by the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. A P value of less than 0.05 denoted a statistically significant difference. BioEstat 3.0 software (Sociedade Civil Mamirua/MCT-CNPq) was used for all statistical analyses.
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TABLE 1. Spontaneous proliferation of PBMC from HTLV-1-infected individualsa
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HTLV-1-infected individuals have an expansion of the memory CD4+ CD45RO+ T-cell subset. As shown in Table 2, the percentage of circulating CD4+ T lymphocytes in the HTLV-1-infected group with PBMC with spontaneous proliferation (41% ± 14%) was similar to those of HTLV-1-infected individuals without spontaneous PBMC proliferation (43% ± 9%) and of uninfected controls (42% ± 9%) (P = 0.84). However, the memory CD4+ CD45RO+ T-cell subset was expanded in HTLV-1-infected individuals with spontaneous PBMC proliferation (79% ± 10%) compared to that in HTLV-1-infected individuals without spontaneous proliferation (67% ± 18%) (P = 0.04) and uninfected controls (67% ± 11%) (P = 0.01). Additionally, the proportion of CD4 T cells expressing CD45RO was positively correlated to spontaneous proliferation of PBMC in culture (Spearman's r = 0 37; P = 0.04) (data not shown).
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TABLE 2. Percentages of T-cell subsets from HTLV-1-infected individuals and uninfected controls
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PBMC from HTLV-1-infected individuals have a lower capacity to proliferate in response to recall antigens. HTLV-1-infected individuals with spontaneous proliferation showed the lowest stimulation indexes to all antigens tested (candidin, PPD, tetanus toxoid, and cytomegalovirus antigens) compared to HTLV-1-infected individuals without spontaneous proliferation and uninfected controls. Only 5.3% (1 out of 19) responded to candidin, while 4.8% (1 out of 21) responded to CMV or TT (Fig. 1). Besides that, HTLV-1-infected SP patients also showed decreases in stimulation indexes: 50% of them (4 out of 8) responded to candidin, 33% (4 out of 12) responded to PPD, 42% (5 out of 12) to cytomegalovirus, and 50% (6 out of 12) to tetanus toxoid antigen. Almost all uninfected controls had positive responses to recall antigens: 90% to candidin (9 out of 10), 83% to PPD (10 out of 12), 100% to tuberculin (11 out of 11), and 67% (8 out of 12) to CMV.
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FIG. 1. Proliferative responses to recall antigens from HTLV-1-infected asymptomatic individuals with PBMC with and without spontaneous proliferation, respectively, and uninfected controls. PBMC were cultured in the presence of candidin, PPD, tetanus toxoid, and cytomegalovirus. At day 5 of culture, cells were pulsed overnight with 1 µCi [3H]thymidine. Results are expressed as stimulation indexes (average counts per minute in the presence of antigens/average counts per minute obtained without antigen). Tests were carried out in triplicate. A stimulation index of 3 was considered positive for proliferative responses (above dashed lines). Bars depict median values. Differences were considered significant when P was <0.05 (Mann-Whitney U test).
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TCR-Vß analysis disclosed polyclonal expansion only in HTLV-1-infected individuals with spontaneous proliferation of PBMC. As shown in Fig. 2A, polyclonal expansion of CD4+ cells (TCR-Vß families 2, 3.1, 6.1, 8, 11, 12, 16, 17, 21.3, and 22) was observed in patients with spontaneous PBMC proliferation. In contrast, HTLV-1-infected individuals without spontaneous PBMC proliferation had CD4 TCR-Vß repertoires similar to those of uninfected individuals (Fig. 2B).
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FIG. 2. TCR-Vß repertoire from five SP+ and five SP HTLV-1-infected individuals. A total of 1 x 105 PBMC were analyzed for surface expression of CD4 TCR-Vß family repertoire with specific monoclonal antibodies by flow cytometry. Analysis was performed on the FACScan using Cell Quest software. At least 10,000 events were analyzed per sample. Significant differences between uninfected controls and HTLV-1-infected individuals (P < 0.05 by the Wilcoxon signed-rank test) are indicated ( ). (A) CD4+ T cells from 5 HTLV-1-infected patients with PBMC exhibiting spontaneous proliferation (black bars) and from 14 uninfected controls (white bars). (B) CD4+ T cells from 5 HTLV-1-infected patients with PBMC not exhibiting spontaneous proliferation (black bars) and from 14 uninfected controls (white bars).
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The absence of detectable cellular immune responses to recall antigens in individuals with spontaneous PBMC proliferation was expected, since high levels of spontaneous proliferation would mask a specific response to the recall antigens evaluated by the stimulation index. However, previous findings support the idea that there could be different levels of T-cell anergy among HTLV-1-infected individuals.
One of the most important observations of this study was that cells from HTLV-1-infected individuals with PBMC without spontaneous proliferation showed significant decreases in the stimulation indexes to candidin, PPD, and tetanus toxoid. In addition, only 33% were able to recognize more than two antigens; in contrast, 83% of uninfected controls were able to recognize three or more antigens. In those individuals, detectable expansion of CD4+ T lymphocytes was not identified by quantification of memory or naïve CD4+ T-cell subsets, and analysis of TCR-Vß by flow cytometry showed that their cells did not have polyclonal activation. Therefore, the mechanisms involved in the impairment of T lymphocytes from HTLV-1-infected individuals without spontaneous proliferation are unclear. These mechanisms could differ from those in HTLV-1-infected individuals with spontaneous PBMC proliferation. In addition, several other hypotheses are possible, such as the presence of regulatory T cells (9), impairment of antigen-presenting cells or inability of PBMC from HTLV-1-infected individuals to respond to interleukin-12 (32). Dendritic cells are the most potent antigen-presenting cells and produce interleukin-12, are targeted by HTLV-1, and stimulate the autologous proliferation of T lymphocytes in vitro (16, 18).
In conclusion, our results strongly suggest that HTLV-1-infected individuals show immunosuppression, as reflected by decreases in the stimulation indexes to recall antigens, even in individuals without spontaneous PBMC proliferation. The implication of these findings on the risk of HTLV-infected individuals developing other infectious diseases remains unknown. Further studies should be conducted in an attempt to clarify these questions.
We thank Lain Pontes de Carvalho for critical review of the manuscript. We also thank José Fernando O. Costa for technical assistance.
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