Constitutive expression of CD69 in interspecies T-cell hybrids and locus assignment to human chromosome 12

In this study we describe the generation and characterization of interspecies somatic cell hybrids between human activated mature T cells and mouse BW5147 thymoma cells. A preferential segregation of human chromosomes was observed in the hybrids. Phenotypic analysis of two hybrids and their clones demonstrated coexpression of CD4 and CD69 antigens in the same cells. Segregation analysis of an informative family of hybrids followed by molecular and karyotype studies clearly demonstrated that the locus encoding CD69 antigen mapped to human chromosome 12. Although the expression of CD69 antigen is an early event after T-lymphocyte activation and rapidly declines in absence of exogenous stimuli, in the hybrids described in this study the expression was constitutive, similarly to what was previously found in early thymocyte precursors and mature thymocytes. In this respect it was important to note that the behavior of the hybrids in culture strongly suggested a dominant influence of the thymus-derived mouse tumor cell genome in controlling the constitutive expression of human CD69. These hybrids may thus provide a system to study the genetic and molecular mechanisms controlling the expression and function of this activation antigen.Address correspondence and offprint requests to: R. S. Accolla, Istituto di Scienze Immunologiche, Facolta'di Medicina e Chirurgia, Universita'di Verona, Policlinico Borgo Roma, 37100 Verona, Italy.