Xikui Liu,
Maria Alexiou,
Natalia Martin-Orozco,
Yeonseok Chung,
Roza I Nurieva,
Li Ma,
Qiang Tian, George Kollias,
Sijie Lu,
Daniel Graf,
Chen Dong
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ABSTRACT: T cell activation and tolerance are delicately regulated by costimulatory molecules. Although B and T lymphocyte attenuator (BTLA) has been shown as a negative regulator for T cell activation, its role in peripheral T cell tolerance induction in vivo has not been addressed. In this study, we generated a novel strain of BTLA-deficient mice and used three different models to characterize the function of BTLA in controlling T cell tolerance. In an oral tolerance model, BTLA-deficient mice were found resistant to the induction of T cell tolerance to an oral Ag. Moreover, compared with wild-type OT-II cells, BTLA(-/-) OT-II cells were less susceptible to tolerance induction by a high-dose OVA peptide administered i.v. Finally, BTLA(-/-) OT-I cells caused autoimmune diabetes in RIP-mOVA recipient mice. Our results thus demonstrate an important role for BTLA in the induction of peripheral tolerance of both CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells in vivo.
The Journal of Immunology 05/2009; 182(8):4516-20. · 5.79 Impact Factor
