Superantigen presenting capacity of human astrocytes.

We found that human fetal astrocytes (HFA) are able to support superantigen (SAG) staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) and toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 (TSST-1)-induced activation of immediately ex vivo allogenic human CD4 T cells. Using radiolabelled toxins, we demonstrate that both SEB and TSST-1 bind with high affinity to MHC class II antigen expressing astrocytes; binding is displaceable with excess cold toxin. Competition experiments further indicate that TSST-1 and SEB at least partially compete with each other for binding to astrocytes suggesting they bind to the same HLA-DR region on these cells. Our study supports the hypothesis that SAG would be capable of stimulating immune responses within the human CNS and contribute to persistence or recurrence of inflammatory responses within this compartment.