Characterization of accessory cell costimulation of Th1 cytokine synthesis.

We studied the capacity of macrophage and B cell lines to provide a costimulatory signal that enhances synthesis of IFN-gamma and IL-2 by mouse Th1 clones stimulated with suboptimal doses of immobilized anti-CD3 antibody. The J774 macrophage line and the CH27 B lymphoma line had the greatest costimulatory activity and routinely increased IL-2 production by 10-fold to 100-fold. Other macrophage and B cell lines had less activity and T cell lines were unable to costimulate. The J774 and CH27 lines did not costimulate IL-4 production by a Th2 clone and had only a small effect on IL-2 production by T cell hybridomas. The process of costimulation was fixation-sensitive, contact-dependent and did not involve stable cytokines present in the T cell/accessory cell conditioned media. Neutralizing antibodies for IL-1, IL-6, and TNF failed to inhibit costimulation. Antibodies to the LFA-1/ICAM-1 pair of adhesion molecules also failed to inhibit. Costimulation of IL-2 production by accessory cells was found to have a unidirectional species restriction: mouse accessory cells costimulated mouse and human IL-2-producing T cells, but human U937 cells induced with PMA were effective only for human T cells. The results indicate that accessory cells can significantly regulate Th1 effector function at the level of cytokine production.