|
||
Brief Definitive Report |
Correspondence to: David L. Woodland, Trudeau Institute, P.O. Box 59, Saranac Lake, NY 12983. Tel:518-891-3080 Fax:518-891-5126 E-mail:dwoodland{at}trudeauinstitute.org.
Although CD4+ T cells have been shown to mediate protective cellular immunity against respiratory virus infections, the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. For example, although phenotypically distinct populations of memory CD4+ T cells have been identified in different secondary lymphoid tissues, it is not known which subpopulations mediate protective cellular immunity. In this report, we demonstrate that virus-specific CD4+ T cells persist in the lung tissues and airways for several months after Sendai virus infection of C57BL/6 mice. A large proportion of these cells possess a highly activated phenotype (CD44hi, CD62Llo, CD43hi, and CD25hi) and express immediate effector function as indicated by the production of interferon
after a 5-h restimulation in vitro. Furthermore, intratracheal adoptive transfer of lung memory cells into ß2m-deficient mice demonstrated that lung-resident virus-specific CD4+ T cells mediated a substantial degree of protection against secondary virus infection. Taken together, these data demonstrate that activated memory CD4+ T cells persisting at mucosal sites play a critical role in mediating protective cellular immunity.
Key Words: immunologic memory, immunity, mucosal, paramyxovirus, CD4+ T lymphocytes
This article has been cited by other articles:
| TABLE OF CONTENTS |
|