Objective: To study the role of bcl-2 gene overexpression in T lymphocyte apoptosis mediated by CD8 epsilon chimera molecule.
Methods: The cells expressed CD8 epsilon chimera molecule were transfected with a bcl-2 expression vector. The cells with Bcl-2 overexperssion were selected by G418 and limited dilution, and then treated with anti-CD8 antibody. The cell death was evaluated with flow cytometry.
Results: It was shown that there were only 2.6% of cells with Bcl-2 overexpression died by apoptosis. Comparing with Jurkat and TJK cells without Bcl-2 expression, in which there were 6.1% and 33.7% of cell death respectively, suggesting that Bcl-2 overexpression remarkbly inhibited apoptosis of the T lymphocytes mediated by CD8 epsilon chimera molecule.
Conclusions: Bcl-2 overexpression could block T lymphocyte apoptosis mediated by CD3 epsilon molecule and the mechanisms remained to be clarified in detail.