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Infection and Immunity, February 2009, p. 707-713, Vol. 77, No. 2
0019-9567/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/IAI.00822-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Regulatory T Cells Modulate Staphylococcal Enterotoxin B-Induced Effector T-Cell Activation and Acceleration of Colitis

Armando Heriazon,¹ Pengfei Zhou,⁴ Rajka Borojevic,³ Katharina Foerster,¹ Catherine J. Streutker,² Terry Ng,⁵ and Kenneth Croitoru^1*

Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, Mount Sinai Hospital, and Medical Sciences Division, University of Toronto,¹ Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, St. Michael's Hospital and University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada,² Intestinal Disease Research Program, Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada,³ Discovery Research Schering-Plough Biopharma, Palo Alto, California,⁴ University College Cork, School of Medicine, Cork, Ireland⁵

Received 2 July 2008/ Returned for modification 19 September 2008/ Accepted 26 November 2008

Oral administration of bacterial superantigen Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxin B (SEB) activates mucosal T cells but does not cause mucosal inflammation. We examined the effect of oral SEB on the development of mucosal inflammation in mice in the absence of regulatory T (Treg) cells. SCID mice were fed SEB 3 and 7 days after reconstitution with CD4⁺ CD45RB^high or CD4⁺ CD45RB^high plus CD4⁺ CD45RB^low T cells. Mice were sacrificed at different time points to examine changes in tissue damage and in T-cell phenotypes. Feeding SEB failed to produce any clinical effect on SCID mice reconstituted with CD4⁺ CD45RB^high and CD4⁺ CD45RB^low T cells, but feeding SEB accelerated the development of colitis in SCID mice reconstituted with CD4⁺ CD45RB^high T cells alone. The latter was associated with an increase in the number of CD4⁺ Vβ8⁺ T cells expressing CD69 and a significantly lower number of CD4⁺ CD25⁺ Foxp3⁺ T cells. These changes were not observed in SCID mice reconstituted with both CD45RB^high and CD45RB^low T cells. In addition, SEB impaired the development of Treg cells in the SCID mice reconstituted with CD4⁺ CD45RB^high T cells alone but had no direct effect on Treg cells. In the absence of Treg cells, feeding SEB induced activation of mucosal T cells and accelerated the development of colitis. This suggests that Treg cells prevent SEB-induced mucosal inflammation through modulation of SEB-induced T-cell activation.

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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Division of Gastroenterology, Mount Sinai Hospital, Room 431, 600 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1X5, Canada. Phone: (416) 586-4800, ext. 7454. Fax: (416) 586-4747. E-mail: KCroitoru{at}mtsinai.on.ca

Published ahead of print on 8 December 2008.

Editor: B. A. McCormick

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Infection and Immunity, February 2009, p. 707-713, Vol. 77, No. 2
0019-9567/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/IAI.00822-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.