Predominant T-cell receptor Vbeta usage of intraepithelial lymphocytes during the immune response to enteric reovirus infection.
Previous studies have found that intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL) contain virus-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) that increase dramatically during the course of virus infection. In the present study, the T-cell receptor (TCR) V beta pattern used by IEL against reovirus enteric infection was investigated both in conventional and in germfree mice. IEL were isolated by a modified rapid method, and their expression of 13 TCR V betas was examined by flow cytometric analysis. The virus-specific CTL activity of each TCR V beta subset was assessed by subtraction with coated Dyna beads by a nonradioactive assay. There was a preferential perturbation of TCR V betas following virus challenge, including increases in cells expressing V beta7, -12, -14, and -17 in conventional mice and V beta2, -12, and -17 in germfree mice. In conventionally reared mice, IEL maintained and restimulated in culture had a preferential use of TCR V beta9, -12, and -17. TCR V beta2 and -17 subfamilies were found amplified in all conditions. Furthermore, TCR V beta12 and -17 accounted for 37 and 77% of the virus-specific CTL activity, respectively, after in vitro restimulation. This study provides evidence that virus-specific CTL activity may be due to the oligoclonal expansion of TCR V beta subfamilies in IEL. Our findings suggest that in vivo infection selectively presents few T-cell epitopes and that the correct identification of these T-cell epitopes would increase the likelihood of success when designing subunit vaccines.
Chen
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D
Department of Research Medicine, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee 37212, USA.
Lee
F
F
Cebra
J J
JJ
Rubin
D H
DH
D000818:Animals; D004848:Epithelium / Q000276:immunology; D007410:Intestinal Diseases / Q000276:immunology*; D007422:Intestines / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H; D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta / Q000032:analysis*; D012088:Reoviridae Infections / Q000276:immunology*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000276:immunology
D016693:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, alpha-beta