Abstract
Naive T lymphocytes have the potential to differentiate and produce a range of cytokines crucial for appropriate immune responses. How T lymphocytes vary their cytokine output during differentiation is unknown, although they are clearly influenced by the cytokines already present in the environment. Here we show that the number of divisions taken by the cells after activation is a critical element in T cell differentiation. Our experiments used the dye 5-(and 6-)carboxyfluorescein diacetate, succinimidyl ester to track cells in different divisions after activation by anti-CD3 in the presence of the differentiating cytokine interleukin (IL)-4. The patterns of acquisition or loss of secretion of IL-2, IL-3, IL-4, IL-5, IL-10, and interferon gamma all varied markedly with division number. These relationships were consistent regardless of the time-dependent variation in distribution of T cells among divisions. Thus, the observed combination of complex asynchronous T cell growth, overlaying a fixed probability of acquisition or loss of a cytokine at each division can explain why T cell differentiation displays the contradictory features of being both highly stochastic and highly controlled. Furthermore, these data reveal that T cells share a common regulatory strategy with B cells, whereby changes in the class of immune response are linked to the process of clonal expansion.