Allosuppressor- and allohelper-T cells in acute and chronic graft-vs.-host (GVH) disease. III. Different Lyt subsets of donor T cells induce different pathological syndromes.

Previous work from this laboratory has led to the hypothesis that the stimulatory pathological symptoms of chronic graft-vs.-host disease (GVHD) are caused by alloreactive donor T helper (TH) cells, whereas the suppressive pathological symptoms of acute GVHD are caused by alloreactive T suppressor (TS) cells of the donor. In the present paper we analyzed the Lyt phenotypes of B10 donor T cells required for the induction of either acute or chronic GVHD in H-2-different (B10 X DBA/2)F1 recipients. First, nonirradiated F1 mice were used as the recipients. We found that unseparated B10 T cells induced only a moderate formation of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)-like autoantibodies, but a high percentage of lethal GVHD (LGVHD). In contrast, Lyt-1+2- donor T cells were unable to induce LGVHD in these recipients; these cells were capable, however, of inducing a vigorous formation of SLE-like autoantibodies and the formation of severe immune-complex glomerulonephritis. Lyt-1-2+ T cells were incapable of inducing either acute or chronic GVHD. In another experiment, the sensitivity and accuracy of the GVH system were increased by using irradiated F1 mice as recipients and by comparing donor-cell inocula that contained similar numbers of T lymphocytes. In addition, donor-cell inocula were used that had been tested for their allohelper and allosuppressor effects on F1 B cells in vitro. In the irradiated F1 recipients, too, unseparated donor T cells were superior to T cell subsets in inducing LGVHD; Lyt-1-2+ donor cells were completely and Lyt-1+2- donor cells were almost incapable of doing so. In contrast, Lyt-1+2- T cells, but neither unseparated T cells nor Lyt-1-2+ T cells, were capable of inducing a vigorous formation of SLE-like auto-antibodies. We conclude that the stimulatory pathological symptoms of chronic GVHD are caused by Lyt-1+2- allohelper T cells. In contrast, the development of the suppressive pathological symptoms of acute GVHD appears to involve alloreactive Lyt-1+2+ T suppressor cells.