화학공학소재연구정보센터
Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, Vol.495, No.2, 1642-1647, 2018
A novel mouse model for tracking the fate of CXCR5-expressing T cells
The germinal center (GC) reaction, a critical process in the humoral immune response, requires follicular helper T (Tfh) cells. Tfh cells express the master transcription factor Bc16 and chemokine receptor CXCR5, which enable them to migrate from the T cell zone to B cell follicles and interact with GC B cells. However, CXCR5 is downregulated when Tfh cells become memory cells. Therefore, it is difficult to track Tfh cells continuously in vivo. In this study, we generated a mouse strain, cxr5(creERT2)R26(Tomato) in whirl., the fluorescent protein tdTomato is inducibly expressed in OCCR5+ cells by tamoxifen administration. After the oral administration of tamoxifen, most Tfh cells in Peyer's patches (PP) from Occr5(CreERT2)R26-(Tomato) mice were tdTomato. To track antigen-specific Tfh cells in vivo, OVA-specific OT-II T cells derived from cxcr5(creERT2)R26(Tomato) mice were transferred to wild-type mice, and the recipient mice were immunized with OVA followed by tamoxifen administration. CXCR5(+) T cells became tdTomato(+) and were mainly located in B cell follicles and GC areas 8 days after immunization. Four weeks after immunization, tdTomato+ OT-II T cells migrated from B cell follicles to the T-B border area and T cell zone after CXCR5 downregulation and CCR7 upregulation. These results indicate that Cxcr5(CreERT2)R6(Tomato) mice are a useful tool for studying the cell fate of differentiated Tfh cells in vivo and therefore have implications for the development of therapeutic strategies for infectious and autoimmune diseases. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.