Our results demonstrate that the chronic inflammatory immune response characteristic of IBD is associated with distinct changes in the number, distribution, composition, and function of mucosal gamma delta T cells. Through the production of cytokines and physical interaction with other cells, gamma delta T cells can perform an immunoregulatory function and contribute to the pathophysiology of IBDs.

The role that interleukin-2 (IL-2) plays in T-cell development is not known. To address this issue, we have investigated the nature of the abnormal thymic development and autoimmune disorders that occurs in IL-2-deficient (IL-2-/-) mice. After 4 to 5 weeks of birth, IL-2 -/-mice progressively develop a thymic disorder resulting in the disruption of thymocyte maturation. This disorder is characterized by a dramatic reduction in cellularity, the selective loss of immature CD4-8-(double negative; DN) and CD4+8 (double positive; DP) thymocytes and defects in the thymic stromal-cell compartment. Immunohistochemical staining of sections of thymuses from specific pathogen-free and germ-free IL-2 -/-mice of various ages showed a progressive ,loss of cortical epithelial cells, MHC class II-expressing cells, monocytes, and macrophages. Reduced numbers of macrophages were apparent as early as week after birth.Since IL-2 -/-thymocyte progenitor populations could mature normally on transfer into a normal thymus, the thymic defect in IL-2 -/-mice appears to be due to abnormalities among thymic stromal cells. These results underscore the role of IL-2 in maintaining functional microenvironments that are necessary to support thymocyte growth, development, and selection.

Although gammadelta T cells are known to contain the highest frequency of mycobacteria-reactive cells in humans and numerous studies have suggested that they play an important role in the initial immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), very few studies have attempted to analyze these cells in patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis. The aim of the present study was therefore to evaluate the consequences of infection on the number and activity of mycobacteria-reactive gammadelta T cells. Three-color flow cytometric analysis of blood and bronchoalveolar lavage gammadelta T cells of patients diagnosed with active pulmonary tuberculosis showed that compared with normal healthy subjects and patients with the unrelated pulmonary granulomatous diseases sarcoidosis and berylliosis the size of the mycobacteria-reactive Vgamma9+/Vdelta2+ gammadelta T cell subset in both the blood and lung was dramatically reduced. In addition, the Vgamma9+/Vdelta2+ cells left intact in patients with tuberculosis were refractory to in vitro stimulation by Mtb Ags, which are potent stimuli for these cells in normal subjects. Our results demonstrate for the first time a strong correlation between the absence or loss of the major Vgamma9+/Vdelta2+ Mtb-reactive subset of gammadelta T cells and manifestations of disease, consistent with the hypothesis that these gammadelta T cells play a role in the protective immune response to Mtb infection.