Activated macrophages induce structural abnormalities of the T cell receptor-CD3 complex.

The mechanism of the structural alterations of the T cell receptor (TCR)-CD3 complex, which appear to be greatly responsible for immunosuppression in the tumor-bearing status, was investigated in tumor-bearing mice. Splenic T cells from tumor-bearing hosts lost the expression of the CD3 zeta chain without being replaced by FcR gamma, despite the normal expression of other components of the TCR complex. Tumor growth induced the accumulation of non-T, non-B cells in the spleen in correlation with the loss of zeta. Those cells were found to be macrophages that were able to induce the loss of zeta, as well as structural changes of CD3 gamma delta epsilon, even in freshly isolated normal T cells by cell contact-dependent interaction. More importantly, macrophages activated with zymosan A+LPS but not residential macrophages were able to induce the similar abnormality of the TCR complex. These results indicate that macrophages in certain activation stages play a crucial role in causing an abnormal TCR complex in tumor-bearing conditions, as well as in regulating the structure of the TCR complex in immune responses.