Analysis of chemokine receptor CCR7 expression on porcine blood T lymphocytes using a CCL19-Fc fusion protein

• Published in: Developmental and comparative immunology Vol. 39; no. 3; pp. 207 - 213
• Main Authors: Moreno, S., Álvarez, B., Martínez, P., Uenishi, H., Revilla, C., Ezquerra, A., Alonso, F., Domínguez, J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Ltd 01-03-2013
• Subjects: Animals; Antigens, CD - metabolism; Blood Cells - immunology; CCL19; CCR7; CCR7 receptor; CD4-positive T-lymphocytes; CD8-positive T-lymphocytes; Cells, Cultured; chemokine CCL19; Chemokine CCL19 - genetics; Chemokine CCL19 - metabolism; Chemokines; Humans; Immunoglobulin Fc Fragments - genetics; Immunoglobulin Fc Fragments - metabolism; immunoglobulin G; Immunologic Memory; Immunophenotyping; interferon-gamma; mice; phenotype; Protein Engineering; Receptors, CCR7 - metabolism; Recombinant Fusion Proteins - genetics; Recombinant Fusion Proteins - metabolism; Swine; Swine - immunology; T cell subsets; T-Lymphocyte Subsets - immunology; T-Lymphocytes - immunology; CCR7; CCL19; T cell subsets; Swine; Chemokines
• ISSN: 0145-305X; 1879-0089
• DOI: 10.1016/j.dci.2012.11.010

► Generation of cell lines expressing porcine CCR7 and CCL19. ► Use of CCL19-Fc fusion protein to analyze CCR7 expression in swine. ► CCR7 expression discriminates T cell subsets with naïve and memory features in swine.
The chemokine receptor CCR7 has been a useful marker for the characterization of human and mouse T cell subsets. We have produced the porcine CCR7 ligand CCL19 fused to the human IgG1 Fc fragment, and used it to analyse CCR7 expression in swine. CCL19-Fc bound to and induced the migration of cells expressing porcine CCR7 but not of untransfected cells, corroborating its specificity. On blood lymphocytes, CCL19-Fc labelled the majority of CD4+ T cells expressing the 2E3 marker, associated with a naïve phenotype, whereas the 2E3− cells were mostly negative. Among CD8+ T cells CCL19-Fc labelled two subsets: one, CD8βhi CD11alo CD45RA+, perforin−/lo , which produced low amounts of IFN-γ after stimulation, which might correspond to naïve cells; and a second small population of CD8βlo cells which expressed high levels of CD11a, and were mostly CD45RA−, a phenotype which resembles that of human central memory T cells.