Homing molecule expression on skin tropic herpes simplex virus type-2 (HSV-2)-specific CD8+ T-cells: role of fucosyltransferase-VII

Abstract Homing of pathogen specific T-cells is an important component of the host immune response. HSV-2-specific T-cells express high levels of cutaneous lymphocyte-associated antigen (CLA) and the related E-selectin ligand (ESL). Control CMV- or EBV-specific T-cells express low levels of CLA/ESL. CLA/ESL expression and lymphocyte homing to skin are dependent on fucosyltransferases-IV and –VII (FT-IV and FT-VII). We used real-time PCR to compare levels of FT-VII mRNA in isolated CD8-pos T-cells specific for HSV-2, EBV, and CMV from un-manipulated blood using tetramer (tet) staining and cell sorting. Within a group of subjects, circulating HSV-2-specific cells had higher levels of FT-VII mRNA than did EBV-specific cells (p=0.02) but not CMV-specific cells (p=0.29). Using within-subject comparisons, HSV-2 tet-pos cells had higher levels of FT-VII mRNA than did CD8-pos tet-neg bystander cells (p=0.02). In contrast, FT-VII mRNA levels within EBV or CMV tet-pos cells were not higher than levels in CD8 tet-neg bystanders (p=0.31 and p=0.44, respectively). Ongoing studies using HSV-2-specific cells to study skin-homing at the protein and mRNA levels are in progress. Research support provided by: STD/AIDS Research Training Grant NIHT32 AI07140 and UW Royalty Research Fund 65-0875