Lymphokines induce specificity degradation in virus-induced cytolytic T-cell clones

The target cell specificity of antiviral cytolytic T-lymphocyte (CTL) clones is influenced by in vitro tissue culture conditions. We have demonstrated that high concentrations of lymphokines such as recombinant interleukin-2 (rIL-2) induce killer T cells to lose virus specificity. Our experiments do not indicate that the cells become like natural killer (NK) cells. The loss of specificity is more general and can be reversed upon culture in more physiological concentrations of lymphokines. The implications of these observations for the pathogenesis of viral infection is discussed.