CD8+ T cell mediated lung inflammation

Role for naturally occurring CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (nTregs) in counterbalancing this process. Using a transgenic murine model for autoimmune-mediated lung disease, we demonstrated that, despite pulmonary inflammation, lung-specific CD8+ T cells can reside quiescently in close proximity to self-antigen. Whereas self-reactive CD8+ T cells in the inflamed lung and lung-draining lymph nodes down-regulated the expression of effector molecules, those located in the spleen appeared to be partly antigen-experienced and displayed a memory-like phenotype. Since ex vivo-reisolated self-reactive CD8+ T cells were very well capable to respond to the antigen in vitro, we investigated a possible contribution of nTregs to the immune control over autoaggressive CD8+ T cells in the lung. We isolated antigen-specifc CD8+ T-cells from lungs and bronchial lymphnodes derived from chronic diseased mice (SPC-HAxCL4), healthy control mice (CL4) and acute influenza infected control mice (CL4+IAV) and perormed mRNA expression profiling of isolated CD8+ T cells. Each group represents a pool of at least n=4 animals. CD8+ T cell type comparison; lung disease state analysis