Cross-reactive humoral immune responses between
antigens of different developmental stages of the worm Schistosoma mansoni have previously been demonstrated. In contrast, information on antigenic cross-reactivity at the T-cell level is still very sparse. The present study examined the cross-reactive T-cell responses to eggs and crude and fractionated soluble egg
antigens (SEA) in infected mice prior to (from 0 to 4 weeks of
infection) and after (5 weeks and onwards) egg deposition. Splenic lymphocyte proliferation to unfractionated SEA was detected as early
as 2 weeks postinfection and increased rapidly by 4 weeks postinfection.
Injections of live eggs into the lungs of infected mice at 4 weeks postinfection demonstrated enhanced
granuloma formation, indicating the presence of primed T cells that respond to egg
antigens. Further experiments with the artificial
granuloma model and
polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis-separated SEA fractions demonstrated that in mice infected for 4 weeks the 60- to 66-, 93- to 125-, and greater than 200-kDa SEA fraction-coated beads elicited significant pulmonary
granulomas. By 6 weeks postinfection, when eggs are deposited in the livers, in addition to the cross-reactive fractions (60 to 66, 93 to 125, and greater than 200 kDa), beads coated with fractions of 25 to 30, 32 to 38, and 70 to 90 kDa also elicited significant granulomatous reactions. These antigenic fractions are considered to have elicited egg stage-specific T-cell responsiveness. In addition hepatic
granuloma T cells from the 6th week of
infection demonstrated the strongest blastogenic response to the 60- to 66-kDa cross-reactive fraction. Thus, in vitro and in vivo experiments demonstrated T-cell cross-reactivity between the larval and egg stages of the worm. On the basis of these observations, the appearance of the primary circumovum granulomatous response in infected mice is considered to represent the sum of larval cross-reactive and egg-specific T-cell responsiveness.