Anti‐CD4 modifies the kinetics but not the magnitude of anti‐CD3‐induced interleukin 2 production in peripheral T cells

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Abstract
We have studied the effect of T cell receptor (TcR) cross‐linking and TcR‐CD4 cross‐linking on the induction of interleukin (IL) 2 and IL 2 receptor mRNA expression in peripheral T cells. We confirm our previous results using bioassays, suggesting that CD4 is involved in T cell activation by up‐regulating the expression of IL 2 receptors. Furthermore, we show that this also concerns other functional T cell genes such as IL 4 and interferon‐γ. In contrast, similar levels of IL 2 mRNA are found in T cells activated with anti‐CD3 with and without anti‐CD4 antibody, suggesting that the induction of the IL 2 gene is regulated by TcR cross‐linking alone and not influences by CD4. However, anti‐CD4 appears to accelerate the induction of IL 2 mRNA in the T cell populations, presumably by a more rapid adhesion of the cells to the antibody‐coated surface.