Trophoblast does not cause the cytotoxic T lymphocyte generation due to the lack of ability to stimulate interleukin-2 production.

Abstract

Trophoblast was demonstrated to be unable to cause the production of interleukin-2 (IL-2) by allogeneic splenocytes in vitro in two ways: 1) The addition of lymphocyte-trophoblast culture-supernatant (LTC-SN) did not stimulate the proliferation of IL-2 dependent cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL-L cells; 2) When responder cells were cultured with heat-treated splenocytes (usually no CTL generation) an increase of CTL formation could be seen in the presence of mixed lymphocyte culture-supernatant (MLC-SN) but not of SN from the cultures in which trophoblast cells served as stimulators. In parallel, the trophoblast cells were found to be very poor stimulators of alloreactive CTL. The addition of interleukin-2-enriched media resulted in a significant amplification of trophoblast-induced CTL generation. The resulting killing lymphocytes were capable of destroying the only specific targets, did not lyse syngeneic target cells, and could not be generated in the absence of allogeneic trophoblast. The incubation of these lymphocytes with anti-Thy 1.2 monoclonal antibody in the presence of complement eliminated their killing effect. Lack of class II antigenic determinants on the surface of trophoblast and/or local immunosuppression of IL-2 production by trophoblast cells seem to be responsible for nondelivery of helper factor, which is essential for CTL production.