On day −1, mice were injected i.p with 0.5×106 BM-derived DC, were pulsed with either 10 μg/mL of TCR peptide B5 (group one) or the control B1 peptide (group two). A third group

of mice were injected with PBS only. On day 0, mice were challenged with MPBAc1-9/CFA/PTx and EAE was monitored. Injection of DC pulsed with peptide B5 was associated with significant protection from EAE compared with mice injected with B1-pulsed DC or PBS only (Fig. 5). The disease scores of mice treated with B5-pulsed Cilomilast manufacturer DC were significantly lower (p<0.0001) than mice treated with B1-pulsed DC. Collectively, these data demonstrate that DC loaded with TCR peptide B5 activate CD4+ Treg, resulting in protection against MBP-induced EAE disease. It has been widely demonstrated that CD4+ T cells with regulatory function can be harnessed to protect against inflammatory diseases. However, pathways leading to the priming or activation of antigen-specific CD4+ Treg have yet to be fully defined. Here the mechanism for the natural priming of antigen-specific CD4+FOXP3− Treg to a defined self-antigen derived from the conserved framework 3 region of the TCR is presented. This mechanism of CD4+ Treg priming is dependent on APC engulfing apoptotic Vβ8.2+CD4+ T cells, and processing and presenting a conserved TCR-derived antigenic determinant to the CD4+ Treg population. Notably, DC activation is required for

optimal priming of the Treg and CD8α+ DC seem to be most efficient in this priming. It was indicated by earlier studies that selleck chemicals llc the CD4+ and CD8+ Treg that suppressed the anti-MBP response in humans and mice were recognizing antigenic determinants associated with the disease-mediating CD4+ T-cell population 30–34. However, due to the lack of knowledge concerning the exact antigenic determinants recognized on the disease mediating cells, the unknown role of APC, and the paucity of defined CD4+ and CD8+

Treg clones, the mechanism of natural Treg priming had not been delineated. Studies presented here show that the naturally occurring TCR-peptide-reactive CD4+ Treg were stimulated upon co-culture with large numbers BCKDHA of irradiated spleen cells form naïve H-2u mice (Fig. 1). Stimulation of Vβ8.2 TCR peptide-reactive CD4+ Treg, but not irrelevant CD4+ T cells, indicated that APC (especially DC) within the splenocyte population present an MHC class II-associated TCR peptide. We have recently delineated the mechanism by which DC acquire TCR antigenic determinants from Vβ8.2+ T cells and present another TCR-derived antigenic determinant in the context of the non-classical MHC class I molecule Qa-1 to novel subset of CD8αα+TCRαβ+ Treg 24. As Vβ8.2TCR peptide-reactive CD4+ and CD8αα+TCRαβ Treg work in unison to down-regulate the Vβ8.2+ T-cell response 3, 15, 30, it is not surprising that DC are able to process and present different TCR-derived peptides in the context of class II and class Ib MHC molecules.