Expression and Functional Analysis of Murine B7 Delineated by a Novel Monoclonal Antibody

The B cell surface molecule designated B7 has been shown to be expressed by activated human B cells and monocytes and to be a ligand for the CD28 and CTLA-4 molecules on T cells. B7/CD28 interactions can provide a second signal to T cells (in addition to occupancy of the T cell antigen receptor) that is needed for T cell activation. COS cells transfected with the mouse homologue of B7 have been demonstrated to provide a stimulatory signal to murine and human T cells. In this report we describe a rat anti-mouse B7 mAb designated IG10. Scatchard and/or FACS analyses utilizing IG10 demonstrated that B7 was not expressed on resting splenic T cells or B cells, but could be induced at high levels on B cells cocultured with a syngeneic I-Ak-restricted autoreactive T cell hybridoma. Furthermore, activation of B cells with dibutyryl-cAMP (db-cAMP), a second messenger for class II MHC signaling, or with LPS induced the expression of B7 and the two agents showed additive effects. In contrast to B cells, freshly isolated mouse peritoneal macrophages constitutively expressed B7. Antibody-blocking experiments indicated that anti-B7 antibody partially inhibited T cell proliferative responses to primary antigenic stimulation but had no effect on the responses of previously activated T cells to antigenic restimulation.