Interleukin-2-deficient mice develop colitis in the absence of CD28 costimulation

The intestinal lamina propria contains lymphocytes that are chronically activated by exposure to luminal antigens. Dysregulation of these cells is thought to be central to the pathogenesis of bowel inflammation in experimental models of inflammatory bowel disease. CD28 signals on peripheral T cells provide important costimulatory signals that enhance T-cell proliferation and activation responses to antigens. However, the role of CD28 signals in lamina propria T cells or models of inflammatory bowel disease have not been determined. Accordingly, we examined T lymphocyte activation and proliferation in CD28-deficient (CD28(-/-)) mice to examine the in vivo roles of CD28 signals in lamina propria T-cell homeostasis. We further generated CD28(-/-) interleukin (IL)-2(-/-) double mutant mice to assess the role of CD28 signals in supporting the spontaneously activated and pathogenic T cells that accumulate in IL-2(-/-) mice. CD28(-/-) lamina propria T cells displayed reduced activation markers, but were present in normal numbers and proliferated normally. IL-2(-/-) lymphocytes expressed high levels of bcl-x(L), whereas CD28(-/-) IL-2(-/-) cells had substantially less bcl-x(L). However, lymphadenopathy and ulcerative colitis-like disease occurred in both IL-2(-/-) and CD28(-/-) IL-2(-/-) mice. Thus, CD28 provides a functional costimulatory signal to lamina propria T cells but is not required for homeostasis of these cells. In addition, neither CD28 nor bcl-x(L) appears to be required for the spontaneous accumulation of T cells in IL-2(-/-) mice. This suggests that other costimulatory molecules or T-cell receptor ligation alone drive lymphocyte expansion in IL-2-deficient mice.