title: The dynamics of mouse cytomegalovirus-specific CD4 T cell responses during acute and latent infection.
abstract: The dynamics of mouse cytomegalovirus (MCMV)-specific CD4 T cell responses and the mechanisms by which these cells contribute to viral control are not well understood, mainly due to lack of appropriate tools to characterize MCMV-specific CD4 T cells. We therefore generated MCMV-specific CD4 T cell hybridomas, then used an MCMV expression library and overlapping peptides to identify CD4 T cell epitopes. We used these novel tools to study the long-term kinetics and organ distribution of MCMV-specific CD4 T cells in comparison to MCMV-specific CD8 T cell responses. We demonstrate that the overall MCMV-specific CD4 T cell response stabilizes during the latent stage, which stands in contrast to subpopulations of MCMV-specific CD8 T cells and HCMV-specific CD4 T cells which accumulate over the course of CMV latency. Furthermore, MCMV-specific CD4 T cells displayed a Th1 phenotype, secreting high levels of IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha and to some extent IL-2, cytokines which are involved in protection from CMV disease.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microbiology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Senta M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Walton
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wyrsch
authors.forename: Michael W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Munks
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zimmermann
authors.forename: Hartmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hengel
authors.forename: Ann B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.forename: Annette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Oxenius
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000818:Animals; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D002460:Cell Line; D016207:Cytokines / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D006566:Herpesviridae Infections / Q000276:immunology* / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D018146:Muromegalovirus / Q000276:immunology*; D010455:Peptides / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D017735:Virus Latency
chemical_list: D016207:Cytokines; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte; D010455:Peptides