Further characterization of protective Trypanosoma cruzi-specific CD4+ T-cell clones: T helper type 1-like phenotype and reactivity with shed trypomastigote antigens.

We previously reported the isolation from immune mice of a panel of murine clonal T-cell lines which specifically recognize antigens expressed by the trypomastigote stage of the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of human Chagas' disease. Our analysis indicated that distinct clones which recognize common as well as strain-specific antigenic determinants were represented. The immunoprotective potential of several of these T-cell clones was demonstrated by adoptive transfer of protection to naive syngeneic recipients. Here we report that these T-cell clones are all of the TH1 phenotype, as determined from their lymphokine secretion patterns. Significant levels of stimulatory activity for each clone were detected in trypomastigote supernatants, and the release of this activity was time and temperature dependent. Seven of 10 T-cell clones tested responded to nitrocellulose-immunoblotted trypomastigote proteins in the range of 90 to 47 kDa; no fewer than six distinct epitopes residing on at least five distinct polypeptide species were recognized by this panel of clones. Two clones (2G8 and 4B10) previously shown to protect in vivo responded to immunoblotted proteins in the range of 65 to 53 and 90 to 80 kD, respectively. Stimulatory activity for the latter clone was shown to be expressed on the surface of trypomastigotes and to bind specifically to wheat germ agglutinin, indicating that its target antigen is an 85-kDa trypomastigote surface glycoprotein.