Engagement of CD45 during in vitro priming enhances antigen-specific Th cell frequencies

CD45 is a transmembrane protein tyrosine phosphatase expressed by all lymphoid cells including T cells. Substantial experimental data has shown that CD45 maintains a permissive state for TCR signaling. The highly glycosylated extracellular domain of CD45 may be the site of interaction with regulatory lectin-like counter-receptors on antigen-presenting cells. The mAb NDA5, recognizing a unique but broadly distributed epitope of CD45, was used to study the possible immunoregulatory role of CD45 during anti-CD3 and antigen-specific CD4+ T cell activation. In vitro priming of peripheral blood mononuclear cells with peptide antigens in the presence of mAb NDA5 results in a higher frequency of antigen-specific T cells. The responses of both naive and memory T cells to peptide antigens were sensitive to mAb NDA5-enhanced priming. Anti-CD3 activation of normal resting T cells, in the presence of mAb NDA5, resulted in enhancement of tyrosine phosphorylation of specific intracellular proteins associated with TCR signal transduction. In cultures without antigen, mAb NDA5 down-regulated the cell surface expression of both CD3 and CD4, yet did not stimulate proliferation of resting T cells. Together these results suggest that engagement of CD45 during in vitro priming has a significant effect on the development of antigen-specific T cell populations.