Organ-specific migration of CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Recent studies suggest that newly identified populations of T cells termed "CD4+CD25+ suppressor" or "regulatory" T cells play important roles in immune tolerance or suppression of aberrant immune responses. Although the mechanism of suppression is largely unknown, suppressor T cells need to physically contact their target cells to suppress them. In order to contact target cells, suppressor T cells must migrate to tissue sites where their target cells are present or migrate to. This implies that the migration behavior of CD4+CD25+ suppressor T cells, in part, can determine their suppressive activity in vivo. However, it remains to be determined where these suppressor T cells migrate to in vivo relative to their target cells such as naive, memory and effector T cells. Furthermore, suppressor T cells may produce yet unknown chemoattractants to recruit target cells. We have found that CD4+CD25+ T cells express a number of different chemokine receptors, and that they are composed of multiple subsets expressing different chemokine receptors. We hypothesize that suppressor T cells are composed of heterogeneous subsets migrating to different sites of immune responses (e.g. systemic vs. mucosal routes; lymphoid vs. non-lymphoid routes), and that the tissue-specific trafficking ability of suppressor T cells significantly contributes to their suppressive activity in vivo. To test this hypothesis we will first carry out comprehensive in vitro and in vivo trafficking studies of CD4+CD25+ suppressor T cells to identify chemokines and chemokine receptors important for their tissue-specific trafficking. We will next engineer or manipulate trafficking behaviors of CD4+CD25+ suppressor T cells. To achieve this, we will 1) introduce new chemokine receptors into CD4+CD25+ suppressor T cells and 2) down-regulate existing chemokine receptors to identify the migration behavior that increases or inhibits the activity of CD4+CD25+ suppressor T cells in T cell-induced intestinal inflammation and graft-versus-host disease. These studies have the potential to provide important information on organ or tissue-specific trafficking of CD4+CD25+ suppressor T cells and its impact on immune tolerance.