Autoimmune orchitis is a condition related to cellular immunity. A disease model involving transfer of T lymphocytes activated by known antigens would be useful for defining pathogenical molecules. Since no method for activating rat T cells using specific antigens is available, we started the study to develop the method. T cells were collected from draining lymph nodes of immunized rats, then co-cultured with syngeneic splenocytes as antigen-presenting cells (APC) in antigen-supplemented medium (= stimulation). The cells were then incubated in medium without antigens and APC (= resting). Repetitive stimulation and resting increased the number of the T cells more than 100-fold. The antigen-specific activation was demonstrated by cell proliferation assay and ELISA assay for interferon gamma. Flow cytometry revealed that > 95% of the cells expressed tumor necrosis factor alpha, a cytokine responsible for autoimmune orchitis. The present method will provide a new procedure to evaluate antigenicity of sperm molecules.

中文翻译：

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体外精子特异性抗原成功激活大鼠 T 淋巴细胞

自身免疫性睾丸炎是一种与细胞免疫有关的疾病。涉及由已知抗原激活的 T 淋巴细胞转移的疾病模型将有助于定义致病分子。由于没有使用特定抗原激活大鼠 T 细胞的方法，我们开始研究以开发该方法。从免疫大鼠的引流淋巴结收集 T 细胞，然后与作为抗原呈递细胞 (APC) 的同系脾细胞在补充抗原的培养基中（= 刺激）共培养。然后将细胞在不含抗原和 APC（= 静息）的培养基中培养。重复刺激和休息使 T 细胞的数量增加了 100 多倍。对干扰素γ的细胞增殖测定和ELISA测定证明了抗原特异性活化。流式细胞术显示 > 95% 的细胞表达肿瘤坏死因子 α，这是一种导致自身免疫性睾丸炎的细胞因子。本方法将提供一种评估精子分子抗原性的新方法。