There is no correlation between function and lymphokine production of HBs-antigen-specific human CD4(+)-cloned T cells.

The question whether antigen-specific human CD4+ T cells can be classified on the basis of appropriate and fixed lymphokine production patterns and their corresponding functions still remains to be elucidated. We generated ten CD4+ T-cell clones specific for HBsAg from HBsAb-positive but HBsAg-negative individuals. Seven of these clones exhibited helper activity for HBsAb response, while the three other clones did not. Both helper- and non-helper-type T-cell clones produced interleukin 4 (IL-4) after antigenic stimulation. By stimulation with phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) plus phorbol myristate acetate (PMA), three of the seven helper-type clones produced interleukin 2 (IL-2) in addition to IL-4. However, the other four helper-type clones did not produce IL-2 by such stimulation, although they continued the production of IL-4. All non-helper-type T-cell clones produced a large amount of IL-2, and some of them completely became an IL-2 producer after certain stimulation. These results suggested that both helper- and non-helper-type CD4+ T-cell clones specific for HBsAg might have no strict pattern of lymphokine production as in the TH1/TH2 dichotomy of murine CD4+ T cells. The data also revealed that lymphokine-producing capacity of individual cloned T cells is changeable depending upon the sort of activation.