T cell sensing of antigen dose governs interactive behavior with dendritic cells and sets a threshold for T cell activation

Sarah E. Henrickson, Thorsten R. Mempel, Irina B. Mazo, Bai Liu, Maxim N. Artyomov, Huan Zheng, Antonio Peixoto, Michael P. Flynn, Balimkiz Senman, Tobias Junt, Hing C. Wong, Arup K. Chakraborty, Ulrich H. von Andrian

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

340 Scopus citations

Abstract

After homing to lymph nodes, CD8+ T cells are primed by dendritic cells (DCs) in three phases. During phase one, T cells undergo brief serial contacts with DCs for several hours, whereas phase two is characterized by stable T cell-DC interactions. We show here that the duration of phase one and T cell activation kinetics correlated inversely with the number of complexes of cognate peptide and major histocompatibility complex (pMHC) per DC and with the density of antigen-presenting DCs per lymph node. Very few pMHC complexes were necessary for the induction of full-fledged T cell activation and effector differentiation. However, neither T cell activation nor transition to phase two occurred below a threshold antigen dose determined in part by pMHC stability. Thus, phase one permits T cells to make integrated 'measurements' of antigen dose that determine subsequent T cell participation in immune responses.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)282-291
Number of pages10
JournalNature Immunology
Volume9
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2008
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank T. Buschman for assistance with programming; M. van den Broek for providing cDNA constructs for the P14 TCR; and G. Cheng and J. Alton for technical and secretarial assistance, respectively. Supported by the National Institutes of Health (AI069259 and AI072252 to U.H.v.A.; HL07623 and Medical Scientist Training Program to S.E.H.; HL066987 to T.R.M.; PO1 AI071195-01 for H.Z., M.N.A. and A.K.C.).

Funding

We thank T. Buschman for assistance with programming; M. van den Broek for providing cDNA constructs for the P14 TCR; and G. Cheng and J. Alton for technical and secretarial assistance, respectively. Supported by the National Institutes of Health (AI069259 and AI072252 to U.H.v.A.; HL07623 and Medical Scientist Training Program to S.E.H.; HL066987 to T.R.M.; PO1 AI071195-01 for H.Z., M.N.A. and A.K.C.).

FundersFunder number
Medical Scientist Training ProgramHL066987, PO1 AI071195-01
National Institutes of HealthHL07623, AI069259, AI072252
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious DiseasesP01AI071195

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