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Infection and Immunity, December 2005, p. 7996-8001, Vol. 73, No. 12
0019-9567/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/IAI.73.12.7996-8001.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Stephanie L. Sanos,
Sara Prickett,
Ashraful Haque, and
Paul M. Kaye*
Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT, United Kingdom
Received 22 July 2005/ Accepted 22 August 2005
| ABSTRACT |
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| INTRODUCTION |
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In contrast to these studies with acute infection models, memory cell behavior during chronic infection is less well understood. A recent study demonstrated that in contrast to mice with acute lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus infection, mice with a chronic infection do not develop memory CD8+ T cells with the capacity for long-term antigen-independent persistence. Memory CD8+ cells in these mice exhibit reduced expression of interleukin-7 (IL-7) and IL-15 receptors and fail to undergo homeostatic proliferation (24). However, the impact of chronic infection on the persistence of preexisting host-protective memory CD8+ T cells has not been described previously. Here, we demonstrate that Leishmania donovani infection of Listeria-immune mice results in significantly enhanced protection against lethal challenge and long-term bystander expansion of Listeria-specific memory CD8+ T cells. We propose that infection-associated splenomegaly may reset the size of the memory compartment to avoid interclonal competition and allow the maintenance of preexisting immunity.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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Vaccination and challenge.
Mice were inoculated with a vaccinating nonlethal dose containing
5 x 104 CFU Listeria, after which bacilli were cleared within 2 weeks (9; data not shown). At week 6 after vaccination, groups of mice (n = 12) were infected with L. donovani or retained as controls. Approximately 10 weeks later, groups of mice were killed to assess the fate of Listeria-specific CD8+ T cells or were challenged with 6 x105 to 8 x105 CFU Listeria, and the levels of protection were determined on day 3 after challenge. Naïve mice infected with this dose did not survive beyond day 3 (data not shown). Livers and spleens were removed and homogenized in fixed volumes of sterile saline and RPMI, respectively, and serial dilutions were plated in triplicate on TSA plates. After incubation for 24 h at 37°C, the number of colonies was determined, and total number of organ CFU was calculated.
In vitro restimulation of Listeria-immune CD8+ T cells.
Dendritic cells (DC) were obtained by culturing BALB/c or C57BL/6 bone marrow cells in granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor for 7 days by using conventional protocols. Dendritic cells were plated in six-well plates and were infected at a multiplicity of infection of 10:1 with either Listeria or amastigotes of L. donovani OVA, a transgenic line of L. donovani expressing chicken ovalbumin (OVA) (15a). When appropriate, control cultures received 5 µg/ml LLO91-99 or OVA257-264. Listeria infection was terminated using 50 µg/ml gentamicin. After 4 h, DC were irradiated (3,000 R) and then plated overnight. CD8+ T cells were isolated from spleens of Listeria-immune mice by using magnetic sorting and were added to DC at a 10:1 ratio. In control experiments, OVA-specific OT-1 T cells were used. Proliferative responses were assessed at day 3 using thymidine incorporation, and gamma interferon (IFN-
) production by bulk CD8+ T cells and by tetramer-positive CD8+ T cells was determined on day 3 following incubation for 5 h in the presence of brefeldin A as described below.
Flow cytometry.
CD8+ cells were positively selected from spleen cell suspensions by magnetic sorting using anti-CD8
(Ly-2) MicroBeads (Miltenyi Biotec). Four-color flow cytometry was performed with spleen cell populations using fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated CD8 (Caltag, Burlingame, CA), phycoerythrin-conjugated anti-CD62L (MEL-14), biotinylated anti-CD44 (Pgp-1; detected with streptavidin-PerCP), allophycocyanin (APC)-conjugated anti-IFN-
(XMG1.2), or APC-conjugated rat immunoglobulin G1 as an isotype control (all obtained from BD Pharmingen, Oxon, United Kingdom). H2Kd/LLO91-99 tetramers were obtained from Proimmune (Oxford, United Kingdom) and used to detect LLO91-99-specific CD8+ T cells. For intracellular detection of IFN-
, spleen cells (1 x 107 cells/ml) were restimulated in the presence or absence of 5 µg/ml of LLO91-99 (Proimmune) for 1 h, followed by 4 h in the presence of 10 µg/ml brefeldin A (Sigma). Data were collected for >50,000 events using a FACSCalibur and were analyzed using the Cell Quest II software (BD). All mice (four to six mice per group per experiment) were analyzed individually.
Statistical analysis. Statistical analysis was performed using Student's t test, and a P value of <0.05 was considered significant. Each experiment was repeated independently at least twice, with similar results.
| RESULTS AND DISCUSSION |
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1.5 log greater than that seen either in L. donovani-infected, Listeria-naïve mice or in control vaccinated mice (Fig. 1B). These data demonstrate that L. donovani infection both enhanced innate immunity to Listeria challenge and also significantly augmented vaccine-induced protection.
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(Fig. 3B) in response to Listeria-infected dendritic cells and to LLO91-99-pulsed dendritic cells, no such response was evident with dendritic cells infected with a transgenic line of L. donovani expressing OVA. Furthermore, tetramer-positive cells also failed to respond to these L. donovani-infected dendritic cells (Fig. 3C). The lack of response in these cultures was not due to a failure in class I presentation, as DC infected with these transgenic L. donovani cells were capable of stimulating responses in OVA-specific class I-restricted OT-1 cells (data not shown). Based on these findings together with the in vivo data described above, we concluded that there is not significant recognition of L. donovani either by bulk Listeria-specific CD8+ T cells or by the LLO91-99-specific tetramer-positive cells that expand during chronic L. donovani infection of Listeria-immune mice.
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-producing cells by flow cytometry. In nonimmune mice, very few LLO91-99-specific CD8+ T cells were detectable after Listeria challenge, whether the mice had been infected with L. donovani or not (Fig. 5A and B). However, in Listeria-immune mice, LLO91-99-specific CD8+ T cells were readily stimulated in vitro to produce IFN-
. For spleen cells from L. donovani-infected, Listeria-immune mice, but not for spleen cells from L. donovani-infected, Listeria-naïve mice, there was a marked increase in the frequency of LLO91-99-specific CD8+ T cells able to make IFN-
(Fig. 5A). The impact of L. donovani infection on the total capacity of the mice to make IFN-
in response to LLO91-99 was even more evident after we adjusted for the total number of CD8+ T cells in the spleen (Fig. 5B). The levels of IFN-
produced by CD8+ T cells in response to restimulation with LLO91-99 were also different in these groups of mice. CD8+ T cells from control Listeria-immune mice produced significantly more IFN-
when they were directly restimulated in vitro than CD8+ T cells produced when they were restimulated 3 days after challenge infection (Fig. 5C and D). These data may reflect down-regulation of the T-cell receptor and associated molecules on the recently antigen-reactivated memory cells (10). More strikingly, in mice infected with L. donovani, LLO91-99-specific CD8+ T cells produced higher levels of IFN-
than the cells in control Listeria-immune mice produced (Fig. 5C and D). Hence, not only does L. donovani infection increase the numbers of LLO91-99-specific CD8+ T cells in the spleens of Listeria-immune mice, but these cells have a heightened capacity to produce IFN-
when they are reexposed to antigen.
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production. The basis for this enhanced responsiveness remains to be determined, but the responsiveness is consistent with previous findings which showed that there was bystander enhancement of IFN-
production (12). Finally, the increase in heterologous memory CD8+ T cells that accompanies L. donovani infection was contrary to our expectations based on the concept of a finite size for the memory pool (7) and evidence from viral infection models indicating that non-cross-reactive infections can cause attrition of preexisting memory (17, 18). In this respect, it is tempting to speculate that the splenomegaly associated with L. donovani infection, and indeed with other chronic parasitic infections, such as malaria and schistosomiasis, may override some of the constraints normally imposed on the memory compartment under steady-state conditions, resetting a new level of homeostasis in the enlarged spleen. Given the global burden of these infections, the extent to which chronic or recurrent splenomegaly and/or lymphadenopathy may affect the memory CD8+-T-cell compartment clearly warrants further experimental and clinical study.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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This work was supported by grants from the British Medical Research Council and The Wellcome Trust. R.P. and S.L.S. were recipients of MRC postgraduate training awards. S.P. was a recipient of an Imperial College Biochemistry Department postgraduate bursary.
| FOOTNOTES |
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Present address: Lymphocyte Biology Section, Laboratory of Immunology, NIAID/National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892. ![]()
Present address: Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, NYU School of Medicine, 540 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016. ![]()
Present address: Infection and Immunity, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research, 1G Royal Parade, Parkville, Victoria 3050 Australia. ![]()
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