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J. Exp. Med.,
Volume 189, Number 1, January 4, 1999 103-110
By

From the * Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton, New Jersey 08544; and the Although recent studies have indicated that the major histocompatibility complex-like,
Institut Pasteur,
Unite de Biologie des Interactions Cellulaires, 75724 Paris Cedex 15, France
2-microglobulin-associated CD1 molecules might function to present a novel chemical class of antigens, lipids and glycolipids, to
/
T cells, little is known about the T cell subsets that interact
with CD1. A subset of CD1d-autoreactive, natural killer (NK)1.1 receptor-expressing
/
T
cells has recently been identified. These cells, which include both CD4
CD8
and CD4+ T
cells, preferentially use an invariant V
14-J
281 T cell receptor (TCR)
chain paired with a
V
8 TCR
chain in mice, or the homologous V
24-J
Q/V
11 in humans. This cell subset
can explosively release key cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-4 and interferon (IFN)-
upon
TCR engagement and may regulate a variety of infectious and autoimmune conditions. Here,
we report the existence of a second subset of CD1d-restricted CD4+ T cells that do not express
the NK1.1 receptor or the V
14 TCR. Like the V
14+ NK1.1+ T cells, these T cells exhibit
a high frequency of autoreactivity to CD1d, use a restricted albeit distinct set of TCR gene
families, and contribute to the early burst of IL-4 and IFN-
induced by intravenous injection
of anti-CD3. However, the V
14+ NK1.1+ and V
14
NK1.1
T cells differ markedly in
their requirements for self-antigen presentation. Antigen presentation to the V
14+ NK1.1+
cells requires endosomal targeting of CD1d through a tail-encoded tyrosine-based motif,
whereas antigen presentation to the V
14
NK1.1
cells does not. These experiments suggest
the existence of two phenotypically different subsets of CD1d-restricted T cells that survey self-antigens loaded in distinct cellular compartments.
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