Monoclonal antibodies to interferon-gamma inhibit interleukin 2-dependent induction of growth and maturation in lectin/antigen-reactive cytolytic T lymphocyte precursors.

In this study we tested the effect of monoclonal antibodies (moAb) AN-18 to murine IFN-gamma on the generation of cytolytic T cells (CTL) from a homogeneous population of precursor cells (CTL-P). As responder cells, highly purified Lyt-2+ C57BL/6 lymph node T cells were used that had been positively selected by flow cytofluorometry on a cell sorter. Lyt-2+ cells were set up in bulk culture or in limiting dilution (LD) either with Con A or with P815 tumor cells as antigen and recombinant human interleukin 2 (rec.hIL 2) in the presence or absence of moAb AN-18 and tested for growth and development of CTL. The results show that moAb AN-18 but not the unrelated moAb AN-37 diminished or abrogated proliferative and cytolytic responses of Lyt-2+ lymphocytes to lectin and rec.hIL 2 in a dose-dependent manner. The inhibitory activity of the antibodies could be abolished by neutralizing moAb AN-18 with recombinant murine IFN-gamma (rec.mIFN-gamma) before their addition to culture. Kinetic analysis shows that the inhibitory effect of moAb AN-18 is only optimal when added at the beginning of culture or up to 48 hr after initiation. The frequencies of CTL-P responding either to Con A or to P815 tumor cells and rec.hIL 2 were reduced up to 10-fold in the presence of moAb AN-18. The inhibitory capacity of moAb AN-18 was also operative in cultures containing on the average one antigen-specific CTL-P. Together with the finding that activated CTL-P secrete IFN-gamma in response to rec.hIL 2 in a dose-dependent manner, the data suggest that endogenous IFN-gamma collaborates with exogenous IL 2 in the induction of CTL-P. The generation of CTL may therefore represent a case of autocrine growth regulation of normal lymphocytes, in which the same cell synthesizes and responds to its own factor.