Comparison of T cell-mediated immune responsiveness of NZB, (NZB x &NZW)F1 hybrid and other murine strains.

The age-dependent capacity of NZB and (NZB x NZW)F1 hybrid, BALB/c, DBA/2, C57BL/6 and C3H mice to generate T cell-mediated immune responses was assessed qualitatively and quantitatively by measuring the following effector functions: (a) the time course of alloreactive cytotoxic T-cell activity triggered in vitro was comparable for NZ and other mouse strains; cell reactivity generated in vivo against EL4 tumour cells was low in young (NZB x NZW)F1 mice and in DBA/2 mice but was comparable for older (NZB x NZW)F1, NZB and other mouse strains; (b) the time-dependent, vaccinia virus-specific, cytotoxic T-cell activity after systemic infection was similar for all mouse strains; (c) the T cell-dependent primary footpad swelling after local injection with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus was within the same range for all mouse strains tested with respect to size and kinetics of the reaction; (d) the cell-mediated immune protection against Listeria monocytogenes after systemic infection revealed that NZ mice are, independent of age, more susceptible than C3H or C57BL/6 mice and comparable to A strain mice. Therefore, these responses in young, or clinically relatively normal older, NZB or (NZB x NZW)F1 strains that are affected by a lupus-like autoimmune disease did not differ markedly from the range of responses of other mouse strains of 2-14 months of age, which are not known to be similarly diseased. Thus, overall cell-mediated immunity of NZ mice as assessed quantitatively and kinetically in these functional models is within normal ranges. Possible T-cell defects may therefore be selective and either do not occur or were not detected in these models.