Higher frequency of Leishmania major-specific L3T4+ T cells in susceptible BALB/c as compared with resistant CBA mice.

In previous studies, we reported that a) the adoptive transfer of parasite-specific L3T4+ T cells enhanced rather than inhibited the development of lesions induced by Leishmania major in normal BALB/c mice, and b) the depletion in vivo of L3T4+ T cells by administration of anti-L3T4 monoclonal antibody reversed the susceptibility of BALB/c mice to L. major. To further assess the role of specific L3T4+ T cells in the development of lesions induced by L. major in BALB/c mice, the frequency of parasite-specific T cells capable of mediating specific delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) reactivity was determined, by limiting dilution analysis, in the lymph nodes draining the lesions of susceptible (BALB/c) and resistant (CBA) mice. The numbers of L. major-specific DTH-mediating T cells was found to be substantially increased in the lymph nodes of infected BALB/c mice as compared with CBA mice. Moreover in CBA mice, analysis of the cell surface phenotype of the L. major-specific DTH-mediating T cells showed that these cells were equally represented in the L3T4+, Lyt-2-, and L3T4- Lyt-2+ subsets, whereas the majority of these cells in BALB/c mice expressed the L3T4+ Lyt-2- surface phenotype.