| The TL MHC class Ib molecule has only marginal effects on the activation, survival and trafficking of mouse small intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes (2004) | |||||||||||||
Abstract | |||||||||||||
| Thymus leukemia antigen (TL) is an MHC class Ib molecule that is highly conserved in rats and mice with no obvious human homolog. TL is expressed in mouse small intestinal epithelial cells and is known to interact with CD8αα homodimers, which are expressed by intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs), some other T cell subsets and some non-T cells such as a subset of dendritic cells. We show here that TL is abundantly expressed on the basolateral surface of mouse small intestinal epithelial cells and that expression is abrogated in β2m−/− mice but unaffected in TCR−/− mice or CD8α chain−/− mice. We demonstrate that the interaction between TL and CD8αα is not necessary for IEL survival in vitro or in vivo and does not modulate IEL trafficking in vivo. TL co-stimulation of α-CD3 antibody-activated IELs resulted in modestly enhanced production of IFN-γ in one subset of IELs. The lack of effect on IEL survival and trafficking and the modest effect on IFN-γ production suggest that the functional consequences of TL interaction with CD8αα as well as the more general biological role of TL in mucosal immunity remains to be discovered. | |||||||||||||
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