Immunological Synapse Formation Licenses CD40-CD40L Accumulations at T-APC Contact Sites1
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The Journal of Immunology Immunological Synapse Formation Licenses CD40-CD40L Accumulations at T-APC Contact Sites1 Judie Boisvert, Samuel Edmondson, and Matthew F. Krummel2 The maintenance of tolerance is likely to rely on the ability of a T cell to polarize surface molecules providing “help” to only specific APCs. The formation of a mature immunological synapse leads to concentration of the TCR at the APC interface. In this study, we show that the CD40-CD154 receptor-ligand pair is also highly concentrated into a central region of the synapse on mouse lymphocytes only after the formation of the TCR/CD3 c-SMAC. Concentration of this ligand was strictly dependent on TCR recognition, the binding of ICAM-1 to T cell integrins and the presence of an intact cytoskeleton in the T cells. This may provide a novel explanation for the specificity of T cell help directing the help signal to the site of Ag receptor signal. It may also serve as a site for these molecular aggregates to coassociate and/or internalize alongside other signaling receptors. The Journal of Im- munology, 2004, 173: 3647–3652. uring the onset and propagation of immune responses, T Interactions of T cells with Ag-bearing APCs is associated with cells send and receive signals via Ag-dependent and Ag- a coalescence of TCRs, other related receptors such as CD2, CD4, independent ligands. Whereas peptide-class II MHC CD28, and signaling molecules such as p56lck, fyn, linker for ac- D ϩ complexes on APC are recognized by the TCR on CD4 helper T tivation of T cells, and protein kinase C into the central portion of cells, separate cell surface receptors modulate T cell-APC inter- an “immunological synapse” (15–23). Integrins and their associ- actions, such as help. The primary form of T cell help is mediated ated molecules, as well as CD43 and CD45, are predominantly by the binding of T cell CD40L (CD154) to CD40 on B cells, accumulated at an outer zone of this interface (15, 16, 24, 25). The macrophages, and dendritic cells (DCs).3 CD154-CD40 interac- central supramolecular-activating cluster (c-SMAC) of TCRs in tions have been identified in vivo as being responsible for T cell- the central zone was initially demonstrated to be uniquely associ- dependent B cell activation and class switching, for facilitating ated with agonist but not weak agonist activation (16). Recently, germinal center reactions (reviewed in Refs. 1 and 2)), for activa- the dynamics of signaling leading to downstream outcomes have tion of macrophages and DCs, for the establishment of memory proven more complex, with clear-cut indications that the c-SMAC CTLs (3), and in licensing CD4-dependent help for CD8ϩ killer is formed only after the onset of signal transduction (17, 26), and cells (4–6). recent evidence suggesting that the c-SMAC might in fact coor- A critical gap in our current comprehension of helper events lies dinate the internalization of TCRs (27). Therefore, the function of in understanding how these interactions are regulated such that the mature synapse structure is a subject of some debate (28, 29). only the correct APC receives signals via the up-regulated CD154. We postulated that helper interactions, such as those of CD154- CD4ϩ T cells typically up-regulate surface CD154 upon stimula- CD40, might be of sufficiently low affinity to be regulated by the tion for times ranging from 24 h to 3 days after activation (7–11). presence or absence of a synapse. Therefore, we assessed the lo- In some instances, CD154 expression is detected at low levels on calization, movement, and activation of CD40 on B cells during resting peripheral CD4ϩ T cells (10). In studies using T cell hy- synapse formation with CD154-bearing T cells. Our results dem- bridomas bearing high levels of CD154, signaling to B cells occurs onstrate that accumulation of these helper molecules to the immu- independent of Ag receptors (12, 13). However, given the milieu nological synapse proceeds after and requires MHC-peptide rec- of the spleen and lymph nodes in which numerous cells are packed ognition by the TCR, ICAM-1-dependent stable synapse tightly together, it is not obvious how spurious signaling from formation, and a functional actin cytoskeleton within the T cells. CD154 to a bystander CD40-bearing cell is prevented. This is crit- Thus, the immunological synapse plays a critical role in regulating ically important, because the availability of such help determines the assembly of signaling complexes containing receptors that are the fate of potentially autoreactive B cells in vivo (14). not directly involved in TCR recognition and signaling. Department of Pathology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143 Materials and Methods Received for publication February 11, 2004. Accepted for publication July 9, 2004. Cell lines and peptides ϩ The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page D10.G4.1 (D10) is a CD4 T cell clone derived from AKR/J mice and the charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance TCR of this clone binds with high affinity to conalbumin peptide CA134- with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact. 146 (CA) in the context of MHC class II IAk (30). D10-CD3 cyan fluo- 1 This research was supported by National Institutes of Health (NIH) Training Grant rescent protein (CFP) is a stable transfectant with properties similar to the T32 AI07334-15 (to J.B.), NIH RO1 AI AI52116 (to M.F.K.), and by startup funds GFP equivalent, previously described (17). Clones were maintained by from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Biomedical Research Support Program weekly restimulations as previously described (30). Experiments were per- Grant 5300246 (to M.F.K.). formed 2–10 days after T cell stimulation; CD40L expression over that 2 Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Matthew F. Krummel, Depart- period varied by ϳ2-fold and all experiments compared cells cultured iden- ment of Pathology, University of California, 513 Parnassus Avenue, San Francisco, tically before assaying synapse formation. CH27 is a B cell hybridoma CA 94143-0511. E-mail address: [email protected] expressing IAk, ICAM-1, CD40, CD80, and CD86. The agonist CA and 3 Abbreviations used in this paper: DC, dendritic cells; CFP, cyan fluorescent protein; weak agonist E8T peptides were purified by HPLC and reconstituted in YFP, yellow fluorescent protein; c-SMAC, central supramolecular-activating cluster; PBS before use as described previously (17). CH27 stably expressing CA, canalbumin peptide CA134-146. CD40 yellow fluorescent protein (CH27-CD40YFP) were generated by Copyright © 2004 by The American Association of Immunologists, Inc. 0022-1767/04/$02.00 3648 RECRUITMENT OF CD40-CD154 TO THE IMMUNOLOGICAL SYNAPSE electroporation using a Gene Pulser II (Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA) followed Rapid three-dimensional fluorescence microscopy by selection of stable transfectants using gentamicin (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MP) and cell sorting. All three-dimensional data acquisition was achieved using an inverted Ax- iovert 200 M microscope and a ϫ40/1.4 lens (Carl Zeiss, NJ), equipped Constructs with a 175 W xenon highspeed DG4 wavelength selector and a single emission filter wheel (Sutter Instruments, Novato, CA), a PI piezoelectric A plasmid encoding CD40YFP was derived by mutagenic PCR of a plas- z-drive (Physik Instrument, Germany) and a cooled-CCD Coolsnap camera mid encoding murine CD40 cDNA using as 5Ј primer: GGA CTG CTC (Roper Instruments, NJ). Stage temperature was controlled by a heated GAG ATG GTG TCT TTG CCT C, and 3Ј primer: CG CAG TAC CGG stage along with an objective heater. Data were acquired and analyzed TCC ACC GCC ACC TGA ACC GCC TCC GAC CAG GGG CCT CAA using Metamorph (Universal Imaging, Downingtown, PA). For D10 time G. This product was then cloned into the XhoI and AgeI sites of pEYFP-N1 course experiments, D10 T cells were loaded with fura 2-AM (Molecular (BD Clontech, Palo Alto, CA) to create a fusion protein containing full- Probes, Eugene, OR) and ϳ105 cells were placed into 8-well glass-bottom length CD40 at the N terminus, followed by a linker comprised of the coverslips (Nunc, Naperville, IL) in phenol red-deficient RPMI 1640. Cov- amino acids gly-gly-ser-gly-gly-gly-gly-pro and YFP at the C terminus. erslips were placed on a heated (37°C) microscope stage. Optimal exposure CD3CFP was produced from a construct similar to one previously de- parameters were determined and ϳ105 peptide-pulsed CH27-CD40YFP scribed to express CD3GFP (17), through the exchange of the CFP and cells were added and allowed to settle. Data acquired every 15 s-1 min GFP coding sequences. consisted of single differential interference contrast, fura 2-AM excitation at 340 nm and 380 nm, and a 8–19 frame 1-m separation GFP/CFP/YFP Abs and drugs (xFP) z-stack. The xFP stacks were collected using streaming software Anti-mouse IAkPE (11-5.2), anti-mouse ICAM-1-biotin (3E2), anti-mouse with 30–1000 msec exposures for each z-plane, resulting in an overall CD154.biotin (MR1) were obtained from BD Pharmingen (San Diego, collection time of 2–30 s. For two-color collection, data were acquired for CA). Anti-mouse CD40 (FGK) and anti-mouse CD3 (500.A2) were pre- each wavelength sequentially. A JP4 polychroic (Chroma Technology, pared from cultured hybridoma supernatant using standard Protein A/G Ab Rockingham, VT) and the following respective filters were used: 436/10 purification methods. Cytoskeletal disassembly was performed by pretreat- excitation and 470/30 emission (CFP), 490/20 excitation and 528/38 emis- ing T or B cells with 10 g/ml cytochalasin D (CalBiochem, San Diego, sion (GFP), 500/20 excitation and 550/50 emission (YFP), 555/28 excita- CA) for 30 min at 37°C, followed by washing, immediately before imaging tion and 617/73 emission (red), and 635/20 excitation and 685/40 emission or bead coupling.