Journal
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PATHOLOGY
Volume 189, Issue 8, Pages 1594-1607Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.1016/j.ajpath.2019.04.018
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- NIH [AI095032, AI134323, A1136821]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
CD8(+) cytotoxic T cells kill target cells through direct cell-cell contact. However, it remains unclear how these T cells eliminate a target of large mass. We investigated how CD8(+) T cells remove tissue cysts of Toxoplasma gondii, which can grow to the size of >50 mu m in diameter within infected cells. Notably, immunohistologic analyses in the brains of infected mice visualized the presence of numbers of CD8(+) immune T cells that had migrated halfway through the cyst wall as well as T cells located fully within the cysts. Perforin was required for their invasion and cyst elimination. Cysts invaded by the T cells displayed morphologic deterioration and destruction. Within these deteriorated cysts, granular structures intensely positive for granzyme B were detected in association with T. gondii bradyzoites. Furthermore, the bradyzoites within the destroyed cysts were Located within accumulated ionized calcium binding adaptor molecule 1 (Iba1)-positive microglia and Ly6C(+) macrophages, suggesting that these phagocytes had phagocytosed those organisms for their eradication. The present study uncovered a previously unappreciated capability of CD8(+) cytotoxic T cells to penetrate into a large target, T. gondii cysts, for their elimination. This invasive capability of CD8(+) cytotoxic T cells in collaboration with phagocytes appears to be a powerful effector mechanism that functions against not only T. gondii cysts but also other large targets, including solid cancers.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available