T-Cells Specific for a Self-Peptide of ApoB-100 Exacerbate Aortic Atheroma in Murine Atherosclerosis

On the basis of mouse I-A(b)-binding motifs, two sequences of the murine apolipoprotein B-100 (mApoB-100), mApoB-100(3501–3515) (designated P3) and mApoB-100(978–992) (designated P6), were found to be immunogenic. In this report, we show that P6 is also atherogenic. Immunization of Apoe(−/−) mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD) with P6 resulted in enhanced development of aortic atheroma as compared to control mice immunized with an irrelevant peptide MOG(35–55) or with complete Freund’s adjuvant alone. Adoptive transfer of lymph node cells from P6-immunized donor mice to recipients fed an HFD caused exacerbated aortic atheromas, correlating P6-primed cells with disease development. Finally, P6-specific T cell clones were generated and adoptive transfer of T cell clones into recipients fed an HFD led to significant increase in aortic plaque coverage when compared to control animals receiving a MOG(35–55)-specific T cell line. Recipient mice not fed an HFD, however, did not exhibit such enhancement, indicating that an inflammatory environment facilitated the atherogenic activity of P6-specific T cells. That P6 is identical to or cross-reacts with a naturally processed peptide of ApoB-100 is evidenced by the ability of P6 to stimulate the proliferation of T cells in the lymph node of mice primed by full-length human ApoB-100. By identifying an atherogenic T cell epitope of ApoB-100 and establishing specific T cell clones, our studies open up new and hitherto unavailable avenues to study the nature of atherogenic T cells and their functions in the atherosclerotic disease process.