Skip to main content
PMC home page
The Journal of Experimental Medicine logoLink to The Journal of Experimental Medicine
. 1986 Apr 1;163(4):1018–1023. doi: 10.1084/jem.163.4.1018

Reduced interferon-gamma mRNA levels in human neonates. Evidence for an intrinsic T cell deficiency independent of other genes involved in T cell activation

PMCID: PMC2188077  PMID: 3081678

Abstract

IFN-gamma mRNA levels in human neonatal blood mononuclear cells or highly purified T cells were markedly lower than those of adult cells after incubation with Con A and PMA. In contrast, IL-2, IL-2-R, and T3 delta chain mRNA levels were kinetically and quantitatively similar in neonatal and adult T cells. The peak amount of IFN-gamma and IL-2 mRNA correlated well with IFN-gamma and IL-2 detected in supernatants of both neonatal and adult T cells. These results suggest that reduced IFN- gamma mRNA levels in neonatal T cells is due to an intrinsic deficiency at the pretranslational level and indicate that the magnitude of IL-2 and IFN-gamma gene expression can be independently modulated pretranslationally.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (557.7 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Cosman D., Cerretti D. P., Larsen A., Park L., March C., Dower S., Gillis S., Urdal D. Cloning, sequence and expression of human interleukin-2 receptor. Nature. 1984 Dec 20;312(5996):768–771. doi: 10.1038/312768a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Fujita T., Takaoka C., Matsui H., Taniguchi T. Structure of the human interleukin 2 gene. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1983 Dec;80(24):7437–7441. doi: 10.1073/pnas.80.24.7437. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Gillis S., Ferm M. M., Ou W., Smith K. A. T cell growth factor: parameters of production and a quantitative microassay for activity. J Immunol. 1978 Jun;120(6):2027–2032. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Gray P. W., Leung D. W., Pennica D., Yelverton E., Najarian R., Simonsen C. C., Derynck R., Sherwood P. J., Wallace D. M., Berger S. L. Expression of human immune interferon cDNA in E. coli and monkey cells. Nature. 1982 Feb 11;295(5849):503–508. doi: 10.1038/295503a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Krönke M., Leonard W. J., Depper J. M., Greene W. C. Sequential expression of genes involved in human T lymphocyte growth and differentiation. J Exp Med. 1985 Jun 1;161(6):1593–1598. doi: 10.1084/jem.161.6.1593. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Leonard W. J., Depper J. M., Crabtree G. R., Rudikoff S., Pumphrey J., Robb R. J., Krönke M., Svetlik P. B., Peffer N. J., Waldmann T. A. Molecular cloning and expression of cDNAs for the human interleukin-2 receptor. Nature. 1984 Oct 18;311(5987):626–631. doi: 10.1038/311626a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Reem G. H., Yeh N. H. Interleukin 2 regulates expression of its receptor and synthesis of gamma interferon by human T lymphocytes. Science. 1984 Jul 27;225(4660):429–430. doi: 10.1126/science.6429853. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Taniguchi T., Matsui H., Fujita T., Takaoka C., Kashima N., Yoshimoto R., Hamuro J. Structure and expression of a cloned cDNA for human interleukin-2. Nature. 1983 Mar 24;302(5906):305–310. doi: 10.1038/302305a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Taylor S., Bryson Y. J. Impaired production of gamma-interferon by newborn cells in vitro is due to a functionally immature macrophage. J Immunol. 1985 Mar;134(3):1493–1497. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Wilson C. B., Haas J. E. Cellular defenses against Toxoplasma gondii in newborns. J Clin Invest. 1984 Jun;73(6):1606–1616. doi: 10.1172/JCI111367. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Wilson C. B., Remington J. S. Effects of monocytes from human neonates on lymphocyte transformation. Clin Exp Immunol. 1979 Jun;36(3):511–520. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Wilson C. B., Westall J., Johnston L., Lewis D. B., Dower S. K., Alpert A. R. Decreased production of interferon-gamma by human neonatal cells. Intrinsic and regulatory deficiencies. J Clin Invest. 1986 Mar;77(3):860–867. doi: 10.1172/JCI112383. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Wiskocil R., Weiss A., Imboden J., Kamin-Lewis R., Stobo J. Activation of a human T cell line: a two-stimulus requirement in the pretranslational events involved in the coordinate expression of interleukin 2 and gamma-interferon genes. J Immunol. 1985 Mar;134(3):1599–1603. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. van den Elsen P., Shepley B. A., Borst J., Coligan J. E., Markham A. F., Orkin S., Terhorst C. Isolation of cDNA clones encoding the 20K T3 glycoprotein of human T-cell receptor complex. 1984 Nov 29-Dec 5Nature. 312(5993):413–418. doi: 10.1038/312413a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The Journal of Experimental Medicine are provided here courtesy of The Rockefeller University Press

RESOURCES