Generation of antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes and regulation of cytokine production takes place in the absence of CD3zeta.

The TCR-associated protein CD3zeta plays a major role in regulating the state of responsiveness to peptide-MHC complexes on the surface of antigen-presenting cells. In this paper the requirement of CD3zeta in the generation of cytotoxic T cells was compared with its requirement in cytokine gene activation in two mutant mice: ZKO mice with a disrupted CD3zeta gene and ZTG mice in which a truncated CD3zeta segment was expressed as a transgene on the ZKO background. Upon infection of ZTG mice with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV), antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses were detected, identical to responses in wild-type mice. In addition, antigen-specific CTL responses to allogeneic class I and class II MHC in ZTG animals were indistinguishable from those in wild-type animals. However, CTL responses to the same major antigens were not detectable in ZKO mice. We conclude that the signal transduction pathways leading to CTL development and cytokine production can be triggered through TCR in the absence of functional CD3zeta, provided the remainder of the TCR-CD3 complex is expressed at high levels on the cell surface. Surprisingly, IFN-gamma production in response to LCMV followed the same kinetics in ZKO, ZTG and wild-type mice. However, in vitro studies showed that cytokine production in general was abnormally regulated in T lymphocytes from ZKO mice, in contrast to ZTG T cells. Taken together, these studies support the hypothesis that development of CTL can take place in the absence of functional CD3zeta. However, CTL development requires stronger TCR-initiated signal transduction events than induction of cytokine genes.