title: A novel approach to visualize polyclonal virus-specific CD8 T cells in vivo.
abstract: Recent technical breakthroughs in generating soluble MHC class I-peptide tetramers now allow the direct visualization of virus-specific CD8 T cells after infection in vivo. However, this technique requires the knowledge of the immunodominant viral epitopes recognized by T cells. Here, we describe an alternative approach to visualize polyclonal virus-specific CD8 T cells in vivo using a simple adoptive transfer system. In our approach, C57BL/6 (Thy1.2) mice were infected with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, vesicular stomatitis virus, or vaccinia virus to induce virus-specific memory T cells. Tracer T cells (2 x 106) from these virus-immune mice were adoptively transferred into nonirradiated (C57BL/6 x B6.PL-Thy-1a)F1 mice. After infection of the F1-recipient mice with the appropriate virus, the transferred cells expanded vigorously, and on day 8 postinfection 60-80% of total CD8 T cells were of donor T cell origin. Under the same conditions memory CD4 T cells gave rise to at least 10 times less cell numbers than memory CD8 T cells. The transfer system described here not only allows to visualize effector and memory CD8 T cells in vivo but also to isolate them for further in vitro characterization without knowing the epitopes recognized by these Ag-specific CD8 T cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, University of Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zimmermann
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Pircher
mesh_terms: D019264:Adoptive Transfer / Q000379:methods*; D000818:Animals; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology* / Q000637:transplantation / Q000821:virology*; D002999:Clone Cells / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte / Q000276:immunology*; D007156:Immunologic Memory; D007399:Interphase / Q000276:immunology; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation / Q000276:immunology*; D008216:Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology; D008217:Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus / Q000276:immunology; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D018353:Rhabdoviridae Infections / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology; D013154:Spleen / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology / Q000637:transplantation; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology; D014615:Vaccinia / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology; D014616:Vaccinia virus / Q000276:immunology; D014721:Vesicular stomatitis Indiana virus / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte