Although it has been proposed that the activation of T lymphocytes is mediated by an early rise in cytosolic calcium concentration, it has not been possible to mimic antigen- or mitogen-induced mouse lymphocyte activation by calcium ionophores that bypass receptor-mediated processes. There is now evidence from other systems that the rise in cytosolic calcium which follows receptor triggering is preceded by the breakdown of phosphatidylinositol bisphosphate into 1,2-diacylglycerol and inositol trisphosphate. The latter is known to cause release of calcium from intracellular stores. The cellular target for the former is now widely accepted to be protein kinase C. Therefore, ligand-induced cellular response follows a rise in cytosolic calcium concentration and protein kinase C activation. Here we confirm that the calcium ionophores A23187 and ionomycin do not activate mouse T lymphocytes. However, either one in combination with the phorbol ester 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate (TPA), which is structurally related to 1,2-diacylglycerol, induces in lymphoid cell populations the expression of receptors for interleukin-2 (IL-2), the secretion of IL-2 and cell proliferation as measured by 3H-thymidine uptake. The growth-promoting effect of IL-2 on an exogenous IL-2-dependent clone could not be substituted for by ionomycin either alone or with TPA. Thus, the combination of calcium ionophores and TPA bypasses the requirement for antigen- or lectin-induced signal at the onset of lymphocyte activation.

To study the interactions between T cells and class I MHC products, we developed in vitro a T-cell line reactive to H-2Kb stimulating cells and derived T-cell clones from it. Although the T-cell line could proliferate in the absence of exogeneous T-cell growth factors when stimulated with H-2Kb spleen cells, each of the derived T-cell clones required both H-2Kb stimulating cells and an external source of T-cell growth factor for its propagation. Each of the T-cell clones was also cytolytic for H-2Kb target cells. Such T-cell clones allowed the comparison of the antigenic requirements for proliferation and cytolysis. By using H-2Kb mutant mice, we found that while the original anti-H-2Kb T-cell line reacted with each of the six mutants tested, the individual T-cell clones could be distinguished in terms of their reactivity pattern. Similar fine specificity patterns were found when H-2Kb mutant cells were used as stimulating or target cells for any given T-cell clone. Each of the three monoclonal H-2Kb-specific antibodies reacting with different epitopes of the H-2Kb molecule totally inhibited H-2Kb-induced proliferation and lysis by the T-cell clones. Further blocking studies involved use of Fab antibody fragments and definition of their reactivity on cells from the H-2Kb mutants. We concluded that: (1) blocking with a monoclonal antibody does not prove identity of alloantigens recognized by the T-cells and the antibody; (2) a monoclonal antibody could either block or not block H-2Kb-CTL interactions depending on structural variations of the H-2Kb molecule not affecting the CTL-H-2Kb functional interaction; (3) blocking one type of H-2Kb-T-cell interaction (induction of proliferation) always affects the other type (cytolysis).