Article abstract
Nature Immunology 8, 162 - 171 (2007)
Published online: 7 January 2007 | doi:10.1038/ni1418
B and T lymphocyte attenuator regulates CD8+ T cell–intrinsic homeostasis and memory cell generation
Carsten Krieg1, Onur Boyman1,2, Yang-Xin Fu3 & Jonathan Kaye1
Abstract
B and T lymphocyte attenuator (BTLA) is a negative regulator of T cell activation, but its function in vivo is not well characterized. Here we show that mice deficient in full-length BTLA or its ligand, herpesvirus entry mediator, had increased number of memory CD8+ T cells. The memory CD8+ T cell phenotype resulted from a T cell–intrinsic perturbation of the CD8+ T cell pool. Naive BTLA-deficient CD8+ T cells were more efficient than wild-type cells at generating memory in a competitive antigen-specific system. This effect was independent of the initial expansion of the responding antigen-specific T cell population. In addition, BTLA negatively regulated antigen-independent homeostatic expansion of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. These results emphasize two central functions of BTLA in limiting T cell activity in vivo.
- Department of Immunology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California 92037, USA.
- Division of Immunology and Allergy, University Hospital of Lausanne, CH-1011 Lausanne, Switzerland.
- Department of Pathology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
Correspondence to: Jonathan Kaye1 e-mail: jkaye@scripps.edu
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