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Infection and Immunity, February 2005, p. 1044-1051, Vol. 73, No. 2
0019-9567/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/IAI.73.2.1044-1051.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Expression of Major Histocompatibility Complex Class II and CD80 by Gingival Epithelial Cells Induces Activation of CD4⁺ T Cells in Response to Bacterial Challenge

Takashi Matsuyama,^1, Toshihisa Kawai,¹ Yuichi Izumi,² and Martin A Taubman^1*

Department of Immunology, The Forsyth Institute, Boston, Massachusetts,¹ Department of Periodontology, Kagoshima University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Sakuragaoka, Kagoshima, Japan²

Received 13 April 2004/ Returned for modification 3 May 2004/ Accepted 18 October 2004

HLA-DR (major histocompatibility complex [MHC] class II) is often expressed by epithelial cells in gingival tissues with periodontal disease but not by cells in healthy gingival tissues. Confocal microscopic analyses revealed that gingival epithelial cells (GEC) from tissue with periodontal disease express both HLA-DR and B7-1 (CD80) costimulatory molecules. Rat GEC lines were established to elucidate the possible role of MHC class II and B7-1 expression by GEC. Stimulation of a rat GEC line with gamma interferon (IFN-) induced the expression of MHC class II, whereas the cell line constitutively expressed B7-1 costimulatory molecules as determined by reverse transcription-PCR and flow cytometry. Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans Omp29-specific CD4⁺ Th1 clone cells proliferated in response to pretreatment of GEC with fixed A. actinomycetemcomitans and IFN-. However, the Th1 cells did not respond to pretreatment of GEC with the bacteria alone or IFN- alone. The activation of Th1 clone cells induced by the GEC was inhibited by antibody to MHC class II or by CTLA4 immunoglobulin (CTLA4-Ig). Lymph node T cells did not demonstrate superantigen activity to A. actinomycetemcomitans, although both lymph node T cells and Th1 clone cells were sensitive to superantigen activity of staphylococcal enterotoxin A as cultured in the presence of IFN--treated GEC. These results suggested that GEC can take up bacterial antigen and consequently process and present the bacterial antigen to CD4⁺ T cells by MHC class II in conjunction with B7 costimulation. GEC appeared to play a role in the adaptive immune response by stimulating antigen-specific CD4⁺ T cells.

Editor: D. L. Burns

Present address: Department of Periodontology, Kagoshima University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, 8-35-1 Sakuragaoka, Kagoshima, 890-8544, Japan.