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Blood, 30 April 2009, Vol. 113, No. 18, pp. 4206-4212. Prepublished online as a Blood First Edition Paper on February 6, 2009; DOI 10.1182/blood-2008-08-171587. This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: blood-2008-08-171587v1 113/18/4206    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Rights and Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Morales-Aza, B. Articles by Heyderman, R. S. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Morales-Aza, B. Articles by Heyderman, R. S. Related Collections Immunobiology Social Bookmarking                   What's this?  Previous Article  |  Table of Contents  |  Next Article  IMMUNOBIOLOGY Impaired maintenance of naturally acquired T-cell memory to the meningococcus in patients with B-cell immunodeficiency Begonia Morales-Aza1,*, Sarah J. Glennie1,2,*, Tomaz Pereira Garcez3, Victoria Davenport4, Sarah L. Johnston3, Neil A. Williams1, and Robert S. Heyderman1,2 1 Cellular and Molecular Medicine, School of Medical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom; 2 Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme, Blantyre, Malawi; 3 Department of Immunology, North Bristol National Health Service (NHS) Trust, Bristol, United Kingdom; and 4 Faculty of Applied Sciences, University of West of England, Frenchay Campus, Bristol, United Kingdom The importance of T cells in the generation of antigen-specific B-cell immunity has been extensively described, but the role B cells play in shaping T-cell memory is uncertain. In healthy controls, exposure to Neisseria meningitidis in the upper respiratory tract is associated with the generation of memory T cells in the mucosal and systemic compartments. However, we demonstrate that in B cell–deficient subjects with X-linked agammaglobulinemia (XLA), naturally acquired T-cell memory responses to meningococcal antigens are reduced compared with healthy control patients. This difference is not found in T-cell memory to an obligate respiratory pathogen, influenza virus. Accordingly, we show that meningococcal antigens up-regulate major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II, CD40, CD86/80 expression on mucosal and systemic associated B cells and that antigen presentation stimulates T-cell proliferation. A similar reduction in N meningitidis but not influenza antigen–specific T-cell memory was observed in subjects with X-linked hyper IgM syndrome (X-HIM), implicating the interaction of CD40-CD40L in this process. Together, these data implicate B cells in the induction and maintenance of T-cell memory to mucosal colonizing bacteria such as N meningitidis and highlight the importance of B cells beyond antibody production but as a target for immune reconstitution. CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

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