Regulation of CD4+ T-Cell Function by Membrane Cholesterol
Abstract
The CD4 T helper cells play a central role in initiating immune responses to various types of infections that have breached the immune defense. In the context of vaccination, CD4 T-cells are critical for establishing broad, long-lasting protective immunity. It is known that T-regulatory cells (T-regs) can limit CD4 T-cell responses during influenza viral infection, however less is known about the effect of T-regs in influenza vaccination. In this dissertation, I first present evidence that the size of CD4+Foxp3+ T-reg pool is an important modulatory component of the primary and memory T-cell responses to influenza vaccination. Herein, I found that immunization of BALB/c mice with a prototype of influenza A/PR/8/34 virus vaccine expanded the CD4+Foxp3+ T-reg pool and fostered the development of virus-specific CD4+Foxp3+ T-reg cells. Increasing the size of Foxp3+ T-reg pool did not alter the primary PR8-specific B-cell response, but it did suppress the primary and memory PR8-specific T helper responses induced by vaccination. In contrast, the vaccination-induced T helper cell response was augmented when the pool of CD4+Foxp3+ T-regs was decreased by 50%.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 13, 2012
- Accession Number
- AD1013280
Entities
People
- Jacqueline D. Surls
Organizations
- Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences