Abnormal expression of T cell receptor genes in Lyt-2- L3T4- lymphocytes of lpr mice: comparison with normal immature thymocytes.

The autoimmunity and lymphoproliferation characteristic of lpr mice are age and thymus dependent. The accumulating Lyt-2- L3T4- T cells express only minimal cell-surface antigen receptor. After stimulation with phorbol myristic acetate (PMA) and interleukin 2, essentially normal levels of surface antigen receptor were expressed by the lpr Lyt-2- L3T4- subpopulation but remained undetectable in the corresponding normal immature thymocyte population. We have found near normal T cell receptor (TCR)-alpha and -beta mRNA expression by these lpr cells. The phenotypically comparable Lyt-2- L3T4- subset of normal thymocytes expressed approximately 10-fold less TCR-alpha mRNA than normal lymph node cells and somewhat higher TCR-beta mRNA. After cultivation of this immature thymocyte subpopulation with PMA and interleukin 2, TCR-alpha mRNA levels remained low, and TCR-beta transcripts were found to be subnormal. By using the same culture conditions, the corresponding mRNA levels of the lpr subset tended to resemble those of Lyt-2- L3T4- thymocytes. Fresh and cultured Lyt-2- L3T4- normal thymocytes showed comparably high levels of full-length TCR-gamma transcripts. In contrast, the fresh lpr subset had barely detectable levels of TCR-gamma mRNA. Upon cultivation, however, these levels increased over 200-fold to within the range observed in the Lyt-2- L3T4- thymocyte subset. No induction of the gamma gene was observed in similarly cultured normal lymph node T cells. The lpr cells may therefore correspond to an as yet undefined stage of normal T cell differentiation.