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. 1994 Nov;98(2):313–318. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2249.1994.tb06143.x

Microglial cells qualify as the stimulators of unprimed CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes in the central nervous system.

E Cash 1, O Rott 1
PMCID: PMC1534421  PMID: 7955538

Abstract

The potential of central nervous system (CNS)-derived cells for initiating T cell responses is not known. Using the capacity of unprimed T cells to respond to allogeneic determinants on antigen-presenting cells (APC), we assessed the ability of microglial cells to act as stimulators of primary T cell responses in vitro. For this purpose, microglial cells were activated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), or by phagocytosis of progenitor oligodendrocytes and subsequently tested for their ability to induce a proliferative response of naive, resting T cells. Activated microglial cells induced a significant proliferation of virgin, alloreactive CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes, with a more substantial response of highly purified CD4+ than of CD8-expressing T cells. Phagocytosis activation was the most efficient stimulus to induce this APC competence on microglial cells. By contrast, IFN-gamma-pretreated, MHC-expressing astrocytes were unable to induce similar responses of alloreactive CD4+ or CD8+ T cells under the same experimental conditions. Collectively, our data suggest the role of activated microglia as the fully immunocompetent accessory cell population of the CNS.

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Selected References

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