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Infection and Immunity, February 2006, p. 1050-1061, Vol. 74, No. 2
0019-9567/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/IAI.74.2.1050-1061.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Umberto Dianzani,3 and
Tania H. Watts1*
Department of Immunology,1 Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A8,2 Interdisciplinary Research Center of Autoimmune Diseases (IRCAD) and Department of Medical Sciences, "A. Avogadro" University of Eastern Piedmont at Novara, Novara, Italy3
Received 4 July 2005/ Returned for modification 8 August 2005/ Accepted 12 November 2005
Inducible costimulator (ICOS) is expressed on activated T cells and plays a key role in sustaining and enhancing the effector function of CD4 T cells. Given the function of this molecule in sustaining T-cell responses, we reasoned that ICOS might play an important role in a prolonged infection model, such as Salmonella infection of mice. To test this hypothesis, wild-type (WT) and ICOS-deficient (ICOS/) mice were infected systemically with a Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium strain expressing the chicken ovalbumin gene (Salmonella-OVA). ICOS/ mice exhibited greater splenomegaly than WT mice and showed delayed bacterial clearance. The acquired immune response in this model was slow to develop. Maximal T-cell responses to Salmonella-OVA were detected at 3 weeks postinfection in both WT and ICOS/ mice. CD4 T-cell-dependent gamma interferon production and a class switch to immunoglobulin G2a were severely reduced in ICOS/ mice. ICOS/ mice also exhibited a substantial defect in antigen-specific CD8 T-cell responses. In vitro, the effect of anti-ICOS on CD8 T-cell division was greater when CD8 T cells rather than CD4 T cells expressed ICOS, suggesting that the in vivo effects of ICOS on CD8 T cells could be direct. Taken together, these studies show that ICOS plays a critical role in control of Salmonella infection in mice, with effects on antibody, Th1, and CD8 T-cell responses.
Present address: Hopital Necker, INSERM U580, 161 rue de Sevres, 75015 Paris, France.
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