Antigen‐specific T‐cell receptor Vβ expression in Porphyromonas gingivalis–specific T‐cell lines

Abstract

FACS analysis was used to determine the expression of 15 T-cell receptor V beta families on CD4 and CD8 cells in Porphyromonas gingivalis specific T-cell lines established from eight P. gingivalis-positive adult periodontitis and seven P. gingivalis-positive healthy or gingivitis subjects. All 15 T-cell receptor V beta families were expressed by the T-cell lines, although a significantly higher proportion of the CD4 cells expressed the 5.2-3 V beta region compared with the other 14 families, including the 5.3 region, suggesting that it is the 5.2 family which is overexpressed. This was also true for the CD8 cells, with the exception of the 3.1 region in adult periodontitis T-cell lines and the 3.1, 13.1/13.3 and 21.3 regions in healthy or gingivitis lines. Between the two clinical groups, a significantly lower percentage of 13.1/13.3-positive CD8 cells was noted in the adult periodontitis lines compared with the healthy or gingivitis lines. There was a significant reduction in DNA synthesis by the lines in the presence of P. gingivalis outer membrane antigens and fixed irradiated lymphoblastoid cell lines compared with cultures containing untreated irradiated lymphoblastoid cell lines and in cultures containing anti-class II major histocompatibility complex antibody in comparison with all other cultures. The results of this study have shown that P. gingivalis preferentially induces the T-cell receptor V beta 5.2 family on CD4 and CD8 cells in P. gingivalis-specific T-cell lines and that activation of T cells by P. gingivalis outer membrane antigens may be by antigen-specific rather than superantigen activity.

Characterization of Heat Shock Protein-Specific T Cells in Atherosclerosis

“…Finally, there was an overexpression of the TCR V␤5.2 family in all lines. The cytokine, chemokine, and V␤ results are similar to those demonstrated previously for P. gingivalis-specific lines from periodontal disease patients (10)(11)(12). Taken together, these results give strong support to the hypothesis (40) that cross-reactivity of the immune response to bacterial HSPs, including those of periodontal pathogens, with arterial endothelial cells expressing hHSP60 may be a mechanism involved in the disease process of atherosclerosis at least in some patients.…”

“…The V␤13 family appeared also to be more highly expressed. The V␤5.2 region has previously been shown to be preferentially expressed by CD4 and CD8 cells in P. gingivalis-specific T-cell lines established from peripheral blood of both adult periodontitis and control subjects, and this overexpression of certain V␤ families was shown to be due to antigen-specific rather than superantigen activation (11).…”

Prevotella intermedia Stimulates Expansion of Vβ-Specific CD4 + T Cells

“…In this study, which is consistent with an earlier study (19), we demonstrated that certain clinical strains of P. intermedia have the ability to preferentially activate the expression of CD4 ϩ T cells. Recent studies have shown that P. gingivalis, another periodontal pathogen, also causes the expansion of the population of V␤-specific T cells (8,37). We were unable to detect such expansions, which may be attributable to the types of strains that were used and/or whether the T cells used were antigen specific.…”

“…In this regard, there are reports suggesting that lipopolysaccharides (LPS) (11,30,31) and other surface components (12,21,29) isolated from P. intermedia are capable of inducing inflammatory lymphokines, which may contribute to the pathological inflammatory mechanisms that are operative in periodontal disease. Recently, there has been evidence to suggest that some periodontopathic organisms may be involved in the activation of T cells expressing specific variable regions on the ␤ chain (V␤) of T-cell receptors (TCRs) (8,19,20,37). One study showed that up to 50% of all gingival T cells express unique subsets of V␤ TCRs in most periodontitis patients but not in healthy subjects (37).…”

P. gingivalis-specific T-cell Lines Produce Th1 and Th2 Cytokines

“…These LCL were prepared as described previously (Gemmell et al, 1998(Gemmell et al, , 1999 and used to stimulate the P. gingivalis-specific T-cell lines at least 3 times (5-6 wks in culture). We stained the T-cells again to determine the cytokine profiles of each line.…”