IL-7-dependent homeostatic proliferation in the presence of a large number of T cells in gld mice

In gld mice, CD4 and 8-double-negative (DN) T cells as well as naive and memory-phenotype T cells accumulate in the peripheral lymphoid organs. Although Fas ligand (L) defect accounts for the progressive accumulation of abnormal DN T cells, the existence of other mechanisms which may be involved in the defective homeostasis in gld mice has been unclear. In this study, we analyze T-cell homeostasis in gld mice using adoptive transfer systems. It was shown that a gld, but not C57BL/6 (136), environment led to augmented proliferation of B6 T cells transferred without up-regulation of CD69. Thus, the augmented T-cell proliferation seemed to result from mal-homeostatic proliferation even in the presence of a large number of recipient T cells. T cells from lpr mice showed no significant proliferation in the B6 environment, suggesting that the absence of Fas-Fas L interaction was not responsible for the mal-homeostatic proliferation. Although similar levels of IL-7 mRNA were detected in gld and B6 spleens, the intensity of CD127 and the proportion of CD127(+) cells in the T cells were significantly lower in gld mice than in B6 mice, suggesting that IL-7 excess in a gld environment is responsible for the abnormal proliferation of transferred T cells. The administration of anti-CD127 antibody inhibited the proliferation of transferred lymphocytes. Thus, IL-7-dependent proliferation seems to be involved in the abnormal proliferation of lymphocytes in gld recipients.