Colchicum autumnale agglutinin activates all murine T-lymphocytes but does not induce the proliferation of all activated cells.

Plant lectins with mitogenic properties for T-lymphocytes have been particularly useful for the study of T-cell activation and effector functions. In the search for mitogenic lectins possessing activation features different from the ones associated with the already known mitogens, we found that an agglutinin isolated from Colchicum autumnale tubers, Colchicum autumnale agglutinin (CAA), possesses interesting properties. First, contrasting with the classical mitogens, CAA induces the proliferation of a fraction of the CD4+ and CD8+ mouse T-lymphocytes. Second, the CAA-induced proliferation requires MHC class II and CD4 molecules. Third, although only a fraction of T-cells enters into the cell cycle, all T-lymphocytes are activated and express high levels of the activation markers CD69 and CD44. Finally, CAA-stimulation is characterized by a particular pattern of the cytokine gene expression, reflected by the transcription of the IL2, IL5, and IFN-gamma genes, while the IL4 and IL10 genes remained silent. Taken together these data demonstrate that CAA activation does not conform to the pathway of T-cell triggering observed with classical mitogenes and represents a new tool for the analysis of T-cell activation.