A role for gamma interferon, tumor necrosis factors, and soluble T-cell receptors in the depressed blastogenic response of spleen cells of Mycobacterium lepraemurium-infected mice.

Spleen cells of Mycobacterium lepraemurium-infected mice were cultured on petri dishes coated with mycobacterial antigens, and antigen-reactive cells were isolated. Upon incubation in mitogen- or antigen-free culture medium, these cells released mediators capable of depressing the in vitro proliferative response of normal splenocytes to specific antigen and to concanavalin A and lipopolysaccharide. One of these mediators was identified with gamma interferon (IFN-gamma), mainly on the basis that treatment of supernatants with monoclonal anti-IFN-gamma antibodies markedly reduced the suppressive activity contained therein. Detectable levels of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) and TNF-beta were present in spleen cell culture supernatants of infected mice. Moreover, low doses of recombinant TNF-alpha and TNF-beta were found to potentiate the suppressive activity of exogenous IFN-gamma. Soluble T-cell receptors beta were also detected in the culture supernatants. The elimination of these molecules with monoclonal anti-T-cell receptor beta (F23.1) antibodies immobilized on a plastic surface partially reversed the depression of the response to mycobacterial antigen but did not affect the response to mitogens. These results revealed the complex nature of suppressor mediators that are produced by mycobacterial antigen-reactive cells and that regulate the in vitro proliferative response.