title: Rapid recruitment and activation of CD8+ T cells after herpes simplex virus type 1 skin infection.
abstract: After localized infection, naive antigen-specific T cells must localize to those lymph nodes (LNs) draining the site of infection before engaging antigen-bearing dendritic cells. Given that naive precursors are initially distributed randomly throughout the secondary lymphoid compartment, it is unclear how long it takes most antigen-specific precursors to mobilize to draining LNs and become recruited into the primary T cell response. Here, we have examined the kinetics of these events, measuring the period over which naive precursors are recruited into the primary T cell response after cutaneous infection with herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1). We show that despite prolonged MHC class-I-restricted antigen presentation, most naive HSV-specific precursors were recruited from the circulation in the first 4 days after inoculation. Furthermore, this prolonged presentation was also not essential for memory development, as truncating the period of antigen presentation to around 4 days did not affect the level of contraction, or long-term stability of the HSV-specific CD8(+) memory T cell pool. Thus, despite initially being dispersed throughout the entire circulation, the recruitment of naive precursors is achieved quite quickly, even when priming is restricted to a small number of draining LNs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Angus T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Stock
authors.forename: Claerwen M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: William R
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Heath
authors.forename: Francis R
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Carbone
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017951:Antigen Presentation / Q000276:immunology; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D006561:Herpes Simplex / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology*; D018259:Herpesvirus 1, Human / Q000276:immunology*; D007111:Immunity, Cellular; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D012874:Skin Diseases, Infectious / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology*; D013997:Time Factors