Identification of novel CD23 transcripts on human T and B lymphocytes and eosinophil cell line

The main aim of the present studies was to investigate the structure of the human low-affinity IgE Fc receptor (CD23) present on T and B lymphoid cells and eosinophil cell line. A novel finding in these studies has been the detection and sequence analysis of CD23 transcripts in human T lymphocytes. These studies have established that some of the human T-cell populations analyzed express CD23 mRNA and that its structure is quite similar to that previously described for human B lymphocytes. A second major finding in these studies is that some human T- and B-cell lines and eosinophil cell line contain multiple forms of CD23 transcripts. These appear to be generated via alternative splicing, resulting in transcripts that may encode a truncated, possibly secretory form of CD23. These findings in human T and B lymphocytes and eosinophils provide new information about the structure of lymphocyte CD23 and suggest that alternative processing of transcripts generates CD23 mRNA that encodes CD23 isoforms. These studies are the first experimental evidence showing that CD23 isoforms may occur in the human and are the first direct evidence for production of CD23 by human T lymphocytes. In addition, these studies provide the first experimental evidence that T and B lymphocytes express CD23 transcripts lacking exon 3-encoded sequences, raising the possibility that a secretory form of CD23 may be synthesized by human T and B lymphocytes, and eosinophils.