SummaryFollowing occupancy of the T cell receptor by antigen, T cell proliferation and lymphokine production are determined by a second costimulatory signal delivered by a ligand expressed on antigen presenting cells. The human B cell activation antigen B7, which is expressed on antigen presenting cells including activated B cells and 'Y interferon treated monorytes, has been shown to deliver such a costimulatory signal upon attachment to its ligand on T cells, CD28. We have cloned and sequenced the murine homologue of the human B7 gene . The predicted murine protein has 44% amino acid identity with human B7 . The greatest similarity is in the IgV and Ig-C like domains . Murine B7 mRNA was detected in murine hematopoietic cells of B cell but not T cell origin . Cells transfected with murine B7 provided a costimulatory signal to human CD28+ T lymphocytes. These results demonstrate the costimulatory activity of murine B7 and provide evidence that the ligand attachment site is conserved between the two species .Although occupancy of the TCR complex by antigen in 13, association with the MHC is necessary for the initiation of T cell activation, several lines of evidence suggest that a second costimulatory signal is essential for the induction of proliferation and lymphokine secretion (1-4) . In murine and human systems, this costimulatory signal is delivered by APC and requires cell to cell contact (2, 4) . Cells which can deliver this costimulatory signal include activated, but not resting B lymphocytes (5), INF-y activated monorytes, and dendritic cells (2, 6) .Several recent studies in human systems have provided compelling evidence that the B cell activation antigen B7 can provide one such costimulatory signal (7-9) . B7, a member of the Ig supergene family, has been shown to be a ligand for another member of this family, the T cell surface protein CD28, (10-13) . CD28 is constitutively expressed on 95% of human CD4+ T cells, 50% of CD8+ T cells, and on thymocytes which coexpress CD4 and CD8 (14-16) . Following suboptimal activation of T cells with anti-CD3 mAb (16), anti-CD2 mAb, or phorbol ester (17), crosslinking of CD28 by anti-CD28 mAb results in enhanced T cell proliferation and greatly augments synthesis of multiple lymphokines (18). B7 is likely to be an important regulator of T cell proliferation and lymphokine production as evidenced by its pattern of expression and functional activity. B7 is not expressed on resting B cells (19) but appears following crosslinking of surface Ig (10, 19) or class II MHC (9) . Moreover, B7 is not expressed on unstimulated monorytes and is specifically induced by INF-y but not other stimuli which activate monocytes (20). Human B7 (hB7) 1 transfected cells or recombinant B7-Ig fusion protein augment proliferation and induce IL2, but not IIT4, synthesis in T cells which have been treated with phorbol ester or anti-CD3 mAb (7-9) .In murine systems, a homologue for CD28 has recently been cloned (21); however, a conserved functional activity has not yet been demonstrated . In ...