Immunological studies on herpetic keratitis: effect of IL-2 on HSV-specific CTL.

The effect of interleukin 2 (IL-2) on cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) was examined in mice with corneal infection of herpes simplex virus (HSV). The corneas of the mice were inoculated with HSV after scratching the corneal epithelium. Ten days after the inoculation, CTL were induced in vitro from spleen cells of the mice. IL-2 was added for the initiation of CTL induction. CTL induced without IL-2 served as controls. After the culture, viable cells were counted and cytotoxicity of CTL was measured by 3H-proline releasing assay. IL-2 promoted proliferation of HSV specific CTL without increasing the cytotoxicity of HSV specific CTL.