Abstract
Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), a neuropeptide present in primary and secondary lymphoid organs has been previously reported to inhibit IL-2 and IL-4 production, as well as the proliferation of mitogen- or antigen-stimulated T-cells. Binding studies suggested that the immunoregulatory effects of VIP are mediated through specific VIP-binding sites present on lymphocyte subpopulations. Here we report on the expression of VIP-R1 mRNA in various murine lymphocyte subpopulations. By using RT-PCR, RNase protection assay, cDNA cloning, and sequence analysis, we show that stimulated and unstimulated murine spleen cells, thymocytes, CD4 + and CD8 + T-cells express VIP-R1. The VIP-R1 fragment amplified from murine brain, thymocytes, spleen cells and CD4 + T-cells share identical nucleotide sequences, and a high degree of homology with the corresponding nonlymphoid rat and human VIP-R1 sequences. The expression of VIP-R1 in thymocytes and peripheral lymphocytes, and especially in the CD4 + T-cell subset supports the idea that VIP produced or released locally in the lymphoid microenvironment could directly affect cytokine production and proliferation of T-lymphocytes.
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