Mechanism of action of thymosin. I. Thymosin fraction 5 increases lymphokine production by mature murine T cells responding in a mixed lymphocyte reaction.

The effect of thymosin on the murine thymocyte mixed lymphocyte response was studied. Thymosin fraction 5 (TF5) caused a two- to threefold enhancement of the proliferative response and production of IL 2 when murine thymocytes were cultured with alloantigenic stimulator cells. Production of a second lymphokine, CSF, was increased up to sevenfold. The target cell for thymosin was a mature T cell, because the PNA- subpopulation of thymocytes, as well as peripheral lymph node lymphocytes, responded to culture with TF5 and alloantigen by enhanced proliferation and lymphokine production. The active component of TF5 appears to be one or more as yet unidentified peptides, because neither of the well-characterized TF5 component peptides, alpha 1 or beta 4, were active. After incubation with TF5 in primary culture, cells remaining after 10 to 14 days were increased both in number and in secondary response to alloantigen, as measured by lymphokine production. These results suggest that TF5 contains one or more biologically active components which can modulate mature T cell activity and lymphokine production, and which provide the basis for understanding some of the previously reported diverse effects of thymosin.