T-lymphocyte responses to Pneumocystis carinii in healthy and HIV-positive individuals

Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) is a well-recognized cause of morbidity in patients with impaired T-cell function. In this study of cellular immunity to P. carinii, peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 25 HIV antibody-positive (HIV+) patients and 11 healthy individuals were stimulated in vitro with P. carinii antigen. The responding T-cell blasts were cocultured with autologous P. carinii antigen-pulsed macrophages to measure P. carinii-specific cytolytic T-lymphocyte activity (CTL). T-cell blasts from two healthy donors were used to generate P. carinii-specific clones by limiting dilution. T cells from HIV+ patients proliferated less to P. carinii antigen than T cells from healthy volunteers. In contrast, the level of specific cytotoxicity was identical in all groups when equal numbers of CTLs were used. Within the group of symptomatic patients, CTL activity was higher in those with a history of PCP (p = 0.033). Pneumocystis carinii antigen-specific T-cell clones proved to be CD4+ and MHC class II restricted; six of eight clones tested showed P. carinii-specific cytolytic activity. Cell-mediated immune response to P. carinii in healthy individuals include CD4+, class II MHC-restricted T cells with P. carinii-specific cytotoxicity. There is an increasing loss of P. carinii-specific proliferative responses in HIV+ patients as disease progresses, but a cytotoxic response is still detected in the absence of proliferation.