Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Yan, Z-h
• Zheng, X-f
• Yi, L
• Wang, J
• Wang, X-j
• Wei, P-j
• Jia, H-y
• Zhou, L-j
• Zhao, Y-l
• Zhang, H-t

Titel

CD137 is a Useful Marker for Identifying CD4 super(+) T Cell Responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Ist Teil von

• Scandinavian journal of immunology, 2017-05, Vol.85 (5), p.372-380

Erscheinungsjahr

2017

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Wiley-Blackwell Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Upregulation of CD137 on recently activated CD8 super(+) T cells has been used to identify rare viral and tumour antigen-specific T cells from the peripheral blood. We aimed to evaluate the accuracy of CD137 for identifying Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb)-reactive CD4 super(+) T cells in the peripheral blood of infected individuals by flow cytometry and to investigate the characteristics of these CD137 super(+)CD4 super(+) T cells. We initially enrolled 31 active tuberculosis (TB) patients, 31 individuals with latent TB infection (LTBI) and 25 healthy donors. The intracellular CD137 and interferon-[gamma] (IFN-[gamma]) production by CD4 super(+) T cells was simultaneously detected under unstimulated and CFP10-stimulated (culture filtrate protein 10, a Mtb-specific antigen) conditions. In unstimulated CD4 super(+) T cells, we found that the CD137 expression in the TB group was significantly higher than that in the LTBI group. Stimulation with CFP10 largely increased the CD4 super(+) T cell CD137 expression in both the TB and LTBI groups. After CFP10 stimulation, the frequency of CD137 super(+)CD4 super(+) T cells was higher than that of IFN-[gamma] super(+)CD4 super(+) T cells in both the TB and LTBI groups. Most of the CFP10-activated IFN-[gamma]-secreting cells were CD137-positive, but only a small fraction of the CD137-positive cells expressed IFN-[gamma]. An additional 20 patients with TB were enrolled to characterize the CD45RO super(+)CCR7 super(+), CD45RO super(+)CCR7 super(-) and CD45RO super(-) subsets in the CD137 super(+)CD4 super(+) T cell populations. The Mtb-specific CD137 super(+)CD4 super(+) T cells were mainly identified as having an effector memory phenotype. In conclusion, CD137 is a useful marker that can be used for identifying Mtb-reactive CD4 super(+) T cells by flow cytometry.