Publikationsdatenbank

Pathogen-reactive T helper cell analysis in the Pig (2017)

Art

Zeitschriftenartikel / wissenschaftlicher Beitrag

Autoren

Ebner, Friederike (WE 6)

Schwiertz, Patrycja (WE 6)

Steinfelder, Svenja (WE 6)

Pieper, Robert (WE 4)

Zentek, Jürgen (WE 4)

Schütze, Nicole

Baums, Christoph G.

Alber, Gottfried

Geldhof, Peter

Hartmann, Susanne (WE 6)

Quelle

Frontiers in immunology

Bandzählung: 8

Heftzählung: Art. 565

Seiten: 1 – 15

ISSN: 1664-3224

Sprache

Englisch

Verweise

URL (Volltext): http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fimmu.2017.00565/full

DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2017.00565

Kontakt

Institut für Immunologie

Robert-von-Ostertag-Str. 7-13
Gebäude 35
14163 Berlin
+49 30 838 51834

Abstract / Zusammenfassung

There is growing interest in studying host–pathogen interactions in human-relevant large animal models such as the pig. Despite the progress in developing immunological reagents for porcine T cell research, there is an urgent need to directly assess pathogen-specific T cells—an extremely rare population of cells, but of upmost importance in orchestrating the host immune response to a given pathogen. Here, we established that the activation marker CD154 (CD40L), known from human and mouse studies, identifies also porcine antigen-reactive CD4+ T lymphocytes. CD154 expression was upregulated early after antigen encounter and CD4+CD154+ antigen-reactive T cells coexpressed cytokines. Antigen-induced expansion and autologous restimulation enabled a time- and dose-resolved analysis of CD154 regulation and a significantly increased resolution in phenotypic profiling of antigen-responsive cells. CD154 expression identified T cells responding to staphylococcal Enterotoxin B superantigen stimulation as well as T cells responding to the fungus Candida albicans and T cells specific for a highly prevalent intestinal parasite, the nematode Ascaris suum during acute and trickle infection. Antigen-reactive T cells were further detected after immunization of pigs with a single recombinant bacterial antigen of Streptococcus suis only. Thus, our study offers new ways to study antigen-specific T lymphocytes in the pig and their contribution to host–pathogen interactions.