CD5 antibodies increase intracellular ionized calcium concentration in T cells

The binding of a variety of monoclonal antibodies to the CD5 (T, gp67) pan T cell differentiation antigen has been shown to potentiate T cell proliferation. In this paper we show that CD5 monoclonal antibodies cause increased intracellular free calcium concentration ([Ca2+]i) in T cells. An increase in [Ca2+]i occurred within 1 min in indo-1-loaded PBMC after the addition of CD5 monoclonal antibodies and cross-linking with a second step anti-mouse kappa light chain antibody. Cross-linking of CD5 was effective when done directly on the cell surface or by the administration of preformed soluble complexes that contained CD5 antibodies. Calcium mobilization induced by suboptimal concentrations of CD3 antibodies was specifically augmented and sustained by CD5 antibodies, although the enhancement was modest in magnitude. When cell surface phenotype was correlated with calcium mobilization, it was found that the CD5 response was restricted to CD5+/CD3+ cells, and that approximately 90% of CD5+ cells had responded. CD5-induced calcium mobilization was found to differ from CD3 stimulation in that EGTA entirely ablated the CD5 response, whereas the CD3 response was resistant to EGTA, indicating that the CD5-induced increased [Ca2+]i is derived primarily or entirely from extracellular calcium. CD5-stimulated calcium mobilization also differed from CD3 in that the CD5 response was inhibited by pretreatment with phorbol myristate acetate, whereas the CD3 response was not, suggesting that depletion of protein kinase C causes an uncoupling of signal transduction between CD5 and calcium channels. Finally, experiments were done with T cells after antigenic modulation of the CD3 or CD5 molecules. Unexpectedly, both the CD5 and the CD3 responses were ablated on CD3-modulated cells, whereas only the CD5 response was ablated on CD5-modulated cells. In addition, several Cd5+/CD3- T cell leukemia lines also failed to respond to CD5 stimulation, providing further evidence which indicates that the CD5 response depends on the cell surface expression of CD3 or a CD3-associated structure. These findings suggest that one mechanism for CD5-induced augmentation of mitogen-stimulated T cell proliferation involves increased [Ca2+]i which is distinct from but interdependent with that induced by stimulation of the CD3 molecule.