title: Adoptive transfer of transgenic T cells to study mucosal adjuvants.
abstract: The study of the initiation and regulation of T-cell responses to vaccine antigens is of primary importance in the rational design of mucosal adjuvants. The detection in vivo of T-cell priming following immunization can be performed by using the adoptive transfer model of naïve antigen-specific transgenic T cells into immunocompetent mice. In this work, we discuss the applications of this system for detecting in vivo the primary antigen-specific clonal expansion, the phenotype, and the effector function of transgenic T cells following mucosal immunization. OVA and the mucosal adjuvant CTB were used as a model vaccine formulation and administered by the nasal route to study T-cell priming. T helper and T cytotoxic primary proliferation and expression of activation and migration markers was observed both in draining and distal sites. This method proved to be a powerful tool to study the efficacy of mucosal adjuvants in enhancing T-cell priming.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio di Microbiologia Molecolare e Biotecnologia, Dipartimento di Biologia Molecolare, Università di Siena, 53100 Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pettini
authors.forename: Annalisa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ciabattini
authors.forename: Gianni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pozzi
authors.forename: Donata
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Medaglini
mesh_terms: D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000502:physiology; D019264:Adoptive Transfer / Q000379:methods*; D000818:Animals; D018928:Immunity, Mucosal / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D009092:Mucous Membrane / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology* / Q000637:transplantation*
chemical_list: D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic