Patterns of IL-2 production and utilization in mice heavily infected with Mycobacterium bovis BCG reflect the phase of protective immunity being expressed.

The results shown here demonstrate that in mice heavily infected with Mycobacterium bovis BCG Pasteur, mitogen-induced levels of interleukin-2 (IL-2) correlate temporally with the state of immunity that is being expressed in the animal during the course of the infection. Active immunity, which is conferred by populations of both CD4+ (L3T4) and CD8+ (Lyt-2) T lymphocytes, and memory immunity, which is mediated by a population of CD4+ T lymphocytes, were identified and distinguished in terms of their sensitivity to cyclophosphamide therapy, their ability to passively transfer specific resistance to infection with virulent Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and their capacity to produce and/or absorb IL-2. In this regard, concanavalin A (Con A)-stimulated L3T4+ and Lyt-2+-enriched splenocytes exhibited an apparent depression in measurable levels of IL-2 when harvested during the first 40 days of the infection, which could be explained by the subsequent observation that these T cells were capable of rapidly absorbing a known quantity of recombinant IL-2 in vitro. Detectable levels of IL-2 in these mitogen-stimulated supernatants began to rise after Day 25, which was temporally associated with a gradual shift from active immunity, to immunity mediated by cyclophosphamide-resistant memory T cells, which did not absorb IL-2 in vitro. These data indicate that fluctuations in apparent IL-2 production reflect changes in the type of immunity being expressed, rather than than some form of defect in IL-2 production.