Combined activation of murine lymphocytes with staphylococcal enterotoxin and interleukin-2 results in additive cytotoxic activity.

This report demonstrates that in vitro activation of murine spleen cells with interleukin-2 (IL-2) or the bacterial superantigen staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA) results in different patterns of activation and function of cytotoxic cells. Lymphokine-activated killer activity and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) are mainly mediated by IL-2 activated natural killer (NK) cells. SEA is the most powerful T cell mitogen known so far and retargets cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) to tumors expressing major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II in staphylococcal-enterotoxin-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (SDCC). Culture of mouse spleen cells with SEA led to expansion and activation of T cells, which demonstrated strong SDCC activity and some NK-like cytotoxicity after 5 days in culture. Cell sorting revealed that both CD8+ and CD4+ T cells mediated SDCC but the former were more effective. Phenotypic analysis showed that SEA preferentially stimulated and expanded T cells expressing T cell receptor V beta 11, in particular CD8+ T cells. Combined activation with SEA and IL-2 resulted in simultaneous induction of T and NK cell cytotoxicity. Moreover, IL-2 had additive effects on SEA-induced SDCC. Combined treatment with SEA and IL-2 might therefore be an approach to induce maximal cytotoxicity against tumors and to recruit both T and NK cells in tumor therapy.