title: A minimum number of autoimmune T cells to induce autoimmunity?
abstract: While autoimmune T cells are present in most individuals, only a minority of the population suffers from an autoimmune disease. To better appreciate the limits of T cell tolerance, we carried out experiments to determine how many autoimmune T cells are required to initiate an experimental autoimmune disease. Variable numbers of autoimmune OT-I T cells were transferred into RIP-OVA mice, which were injected with antigen-loaded DCs in a single footpad; this restricted T cell priming to a few OT-I T cells that are present in the draining popliteal lymph node. Using selective plane illumination microscopy (SPIM) we counted the number of OT-I T cells present in the popliteal lymph node at the time of priming. Analysis of our data suggests that a single autoimmune T cell cannot induce an experimental autoimmune disease, but a "quorum" of 2-5 autoimmune T cells clearly has this capacity.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Biomedicine and Nephrology, University Hospital Basel and University of Basel, 4031 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Angela J T
authors.initials: AJT
authors.lastname: Bosch
authors.affiliation: Departments of Biomedicine and Nephrology, University Hospital Basel and University of Basel, 4031 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Beatrice
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bolinger
authors.affiliation: Departments of Biomedicine and Nephrology, University Hospital Basel and University of Basel, 4031 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Keck
authors.affiliation: Departments of Biomedicine and Nephrology, University Hospital Basel and University of Basel, 4031 Basel, Switzerland; Institute of Molecular Genetics, Czech Academy of Sciences, 142 20 Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Ondrej
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Stepanek
authors.affiliation: Theodor Kocher Institute, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Aleksandra J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Ozga
authors.affiliation: Departments of Biomedicine and Nephrology, University Hospital Basel and University of Basel, 4031 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Virginie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Galati-Fournier
authors.affiliation: Theodor Kocher Institute, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Jens V
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Stein
authors.affiliation: Departments of Biomedicine and Nephrology, University Hospital Basel and University of Basel, 4031 Basel, Switzerland. Electronic address: ed.palmer@unibas.ch.
authors.forename: Ed
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Palmer
mesh_terms: D019264:Adoptive Transfer; D000818:Animals; D017951:Antigen Presentation; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000276:immunology*; D015551:Autoimmunity; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology*; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000276:immunology; D003921:Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental / Q000276:immunology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D007108:Immune Tolerance; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D010047:Ovalbumin / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D010047:Ovalbumin
keywords: Autoimmunity; T cell; Tolerance