High IL-4 production is a stable phenotype of CD8negCD45RAnegCD27neg T cells

CD27neg T cells are found only among CD4pos-CD45ROpos T cells and represent a T cell subset functionally distinct from CD27pos T cells. We examined CD4posCD45ROpos T cells that were sorted into CD27neg and CD27pos populations for their cytokine production in response to different activation pathways. We found that CD27neg T cells are characterized by high IL-4 and low IL-2 production, regardless of whether the cells were activated through CD3 plus CD28, CD2 plus CD28, or PHA plus PMA. However, subpopulation-specific patterns of cytokines were the clearest demonstrable following CD2 plus CD28 stimulation. We conclude from these data that high IL-4 production is a stable phenotype of CD27neg T cells.