An extrafollicular pathway for the generation of effector CD8+ T cells driven by the proinflammatory cytokine, IL-12

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Abstract

The proinflammatory cytokine IL-12 drives the generation of terminally differentiated KLRG1⁺ effector CD8⁺ T cells. Using a Toxoplasma vaccination model, we delineate the sequence of events that naïve CD8⁺ T cells undergo to become terminal effectors and the differentiation steps controlled by IL-12. We demonstrate that direct IL-12 signaling on CD8⁺ T cells is essential for the induction of KLRG1 and IFN-γ, but the subsequent downregulation of CXCR3 is controlled by IL-12 indirectly through the actions of IFN-γ and IFN-γ-inducible chemokines. Differentiation of nascent effectors occurs in an extrafollicular splenic compartment and is driven by late IL-12 production by DCs distinct from the classical CD8α⁺ DC. Unexpectedly, we also found extensive proliferation of both KLRG1⁻ and KLRG1⁺ CD8⁺ T cells in the marginal zone and red pulp, which ceases prior to the final KLRG1^Hi CXCR3^Lo stage. Our findings highlight the notion of an extrafollicular pathway for effector T cell generation.

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Suhagi Shah

Center for Immunity and Inflammation, New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers University, Newark, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Gijsbert M Grotenbreg

121 Bio LLC, Cambridge, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Amariliz Rivera

Center for Immunity and Inflammation, New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers University, Newark, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
George S Yap

Center for Immunity and Inflammation, New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers University, Newark, United States

For correspondence
yapgs@njms.rutgers.edu

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: This study was performed in strict accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the National Institutes of Health. All of the animals were handled according to approved institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC) of the Rutgers Biomedical Health Sciences, protocol number 13110. The protocol was approved by the Committee on the Ethics of Animal Experiments of Rutgers Biomedical Health Sciences.

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