A new surface molecule has been discovered on mouse intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL) using a rat anti-mouse IEL monoclonal antibody, M290. It was expressed at high levels on nearly all IEL and on a majority of T cells in the gut lamina propria. M290 stained, with lower intensity, a small minority of T cells in other lymphoid tissues. Expression was biased towards the CD8+ subset. Stimulation of peripheral T cells with mitogens did not induce expression of the new antigen but addition of transforming growth factor beta to stimulated T cells had a marked inductive effect. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoretic analysis of IEL surface components precipitated with M290 showed principal bands at 135, 120, 28 and 24 kDa (reduced) and 135, 100, 24 and 21 kDa (nonreduced). Precipitation with antibodies to integrin subunits showed that the new molecular complex was not a member of the beta 1, beta 2, or beta 3 integrin families although all of these were represented on IEL. A 13-amino acid N-terminal sequence obtained from the 120-kDa beta subunit of the antigen prepared from an M290+ T hybridoma (MTC-1) did not show homology with integrins. Pulse-chase studies using MTC-1 cells showed that the 135-kDa alpha subunit was derived from a 147-kDa precursor. The function of this new molecular complex is not yet known.

A mouse lymphocyte surface molecule which is selectively expressed by mucosal T cells and detected with the monoclonal antibody (mAb) M290 has provisionally been identified as a beta 7 integrin. Identification was based on close homology of its beta subunit at the N terminus with the recently reported, highly distinctive, human beta 7 sequence. mAb were prepared against the beta and alpha subunits of the mouse molecule, termed beta 7 and alpha M290, respectively, and used to study surface expression of the two components. beta 7 was present on most lymph node lymphocytes in association with alpha 4 rather than alpha M290. This integrin, beta 7 alpha 4, was shown to be identical to LPAM-1 (beta p alpha 4) the Peyer's patch homing receptor. Stimulation in vitro of mouse lymph node T cells with anti-CD3 in the presence of transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta increased beta 7 expression in about 40% of cells and changed the associated alpha chain from alpha 4 to the novel alpha M290 subunit, which, in most cells, was expressed de novo. Immunoprecipitation of beta 7 both from these cells and from intraepithelial lymphocytes gave closely similar results and showed predominance of the beta 7 alpha M290 integrin. It is suggested that in vivo this change in alpha-chain usage occurs in mucosal T cells in response to TGF-beta acting in the mucosal microenvironment and that the new integrin confers particular adhesive properties, possibly homing specificity, on the cells.

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