Pivotal Advance: CTLA-4+ T cells exhibit normal antiviral functions during acute viral infection

Hans Peter Raué, Mark K. Slifka

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that T cells, which are genetically deficient in CTLA-4/CD152 expression, will proliferate uncontrollably, resulting in lethal autoimmune disease. This and other evidence indicate that CTLA-4 plays a critical role in the negative regulation of effector T cell function. In contrast to expectations, BrdU incorporation experiments demonstrated that CTLA-4 expression was associated with normal or even enhanced in vivo proliferation of virus-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells following acute lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus or vaccinia virus infection. When compared with CTLA-4- T cells directly ex vivo, CTLA-4 + T cells also exhibited normal antiviral effector functions following stimulation with peptide-coated cells, virus-infected cells, plate-bound anti-CD3/anti-CTLA-4, or the cytokines IL-12 and IL-18. Together, this indicates that CTLA-4 does not directly inhibit antiviral T cell expansion or T cell effector functions, at least not under the normal physiological conditions associated with either of these two acute viral infections.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1165-1175
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Leukocyte Biology
Volume81
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2007

Keywords

  • CD4
  • CD8
  • LCMV
  • Vaccinia

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Immunology and Allergy
  • Immunology
  • Cell Biology

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