Cytotoxic T cell recognition of Epstein-Barr virus-infected B cells. I. Specificity and HLA restriction of effector cells reactivated in vitro.

The experiments show that the phenomenon of regression, seen exclusively in Epstein-Barr (EB) virus-infected cultures of mononuclear cells from EB virus antibody-positive donors, is mediated by cytotoxic T cells reactivated in vitro and specifically recognizing an EB virus-induced lymphocyte-detected membrane antigen LYDMA. Thus, effector T cells from regressing cultures kill autologous EB virus-transformed cells but not autologous pokeweed mitogen-stimulates lymphoblasts nor any of a range of EB virus genome-negative human hemopoietic cell lines (K562, HSB2, BJAB, EB4) particularly sensitive to nonspecific natural killer-like activities. Moreover, these reactivated effector cells exhibit classical HLA restriction of target cell recognition; in a survey of 14 effector cell donors, preferential lysis of the autologous virus-transformed line was a consistent feature, while the relative degree of lysis of allogeneic lines was in general directly related to the number of HLA-A and B antigens shared between effector and target cells. The pattern of reactivity shown by effector T cell preparations from any one donor was strikingly reproducible, and the results from a number of donors revealed differences between particular HLA-A and B antigens with respect to the level of EB virus-specific killing which was associated with sharing through these determinants.