Kinetics of activation antigen expression by in vitro-stimulated human T lymphocytes.

Abstract In this study a panel of monoclonal antibodies was used to investigate the kinetics of the appearance of activation-linked surface determinants as well as cytoplasmic and nuclear determinants in human T cells following lectin stimulation. Well known activation markers, such as Ia/DR, transferrin receptor, IL-2 receptor, T10, and gp24, were compared and investigated together with the T13 structure, recently found in this laboratory. T13, not demonstrable on resting T cells, could be seen within 24 hr after lectin stimulation. Kinetics of the appearance were similar to IL-2 receptor and transferrin receptor expression. Ia/DR synthesis was investigated separately for each polypeptide and the cytoplasmic invariant γ-chain expression could be demonstrated for the first time with a γ-chain-specific monoclonal antibody VIC-Y1. Moreover, γ-chain synthesis seems to precede α- and β-chain occurrence in human T cells. In addition, data from quantitative studies on antigenic densities are presented.