CD8 T cell cross-reactivity between viruses can play roles in protective heterologous immunity and damaging immunopathology. This cross-reactivity is sometimes predictable, such as between lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) and Pichinde virus, where cross-reactive epitopes share six out of eight amino acids. Here, however, we demonstrate more subtle and less predictable cross-reactivity between LCMV and the unrelated vaccinia virus (VV). Epitope-specific T cell receptor usage differed between individual LCMV-infected C57BL/6 mice, even though the mice had similar epitope-specific T cell hierarchies. LCMV-immune mice challenged with VV showed variations, albeit in a distinct hierarchy, in proliferative expansions of and down-regulation of IL-7Rα by T cells specific to different LCMV epitopes. T cell responses to a VV-encoded epitope that is cross-reactive with LCMV fluctuated greatly in VV-infected LCMV-immune mice. Adoptive transfers of splenocytes from individual LCMV-immune donors resulted in nearly identical VV-induced responses in each of several recipients, but responses differed depending on the donor. This indicates that the specificities of T cell responses that are not shared between individuals may influence cross-reactivity with other antigens and play roles in heterologous immunity upon encounter with another pathogen. This variability in cross-reactive T cell expansion that is unique to the individual may underlie variation in the pathogenesis of infectious diseases.

Vaccination with the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) attachment (G) protein results in immune-mediated lung injury after natural RSV infection with pathogenic features characteristic of an exaggerated Th2 response. Here we demonstrate that approximately half of the CD4(+) T cells infiltrating the lungs of G-primed mice utilize a single V beta gene (V beta 14) with remarkably limited CDR3 diversity. Furthermore, elimination of these V beta 14-bearing CD4(+) T cells in vivo abolishes the type 2-like pulmonary injury. These results suggest that a novel subset of CD4(+) T cells may be crucial in the development of pathology during human RSV infection and that genetic or environmental factors prior to or at the time of G antigen exposure may affect the commitment of this discrete antigen-specific T cell subset to Th2 differentiation.

CD8 T cells persist at high frequencies in peripheral organs after resolution of an immune response, and their presence in the periphery is important for resistance to secondary challenge. We show here that LCMV-specific T cells in peripheral tissue (peritoneal cavity, lung, fat pads) reacted much less with the apoptotic marker Annexin-V than those in spleen and lymph nodes. This was not due to a TCR-based selection. In comparison to lymphoid tissue, T cells in the periphery expressed lower levels of Fas and Fas ligand and were resistant to activation-induced cell death in vitro. This may contribute to the survival of nondividing peripheral memory T cells, enabling them to efficiently function without being driven into apoptosis.

Virus-specific CD8 T cells after clearance of infection reduce their number in lymphoid organs by apoptotic death and by migration into peripheral tissues. During and after infection, many lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV)-specific CD8 T cells in lymphoid but not peripheral tissues are in a preapoptotic state, as detected by the early apoptosis marker annexin V. In this report, we investigated the significance of this preapoptotic state and how it may be influenced by viral epitope specificity. Stimulation with anti-CD3 or IL-2 in vitro postponed DNA fragmentation in annexin V+ cells, but adoptive transfer studies in vivo showed that this preapoptotic phenotype precluded the development of functional memory. CD8 T cells specific to LCMV epitopes NP396 and gp33 differed in their preapoptotic state, with NP396-specific T cells binding more annexin V than gp33-specific T cells. These epitope- and tissue-dependent differences were seen in primary, memory, and secondary responses and in mice receiving different displays of Ag by infection with LCMV strains of different tropisms or by infection with vaccinia virus recombinants expressing LCMV proteins. Thus, the epitope-dependent differences in apoptosis were independent of virus tropisms, duration of Ag exposure, and competition within APCs, and were an intrinsic property of the epitope. The tissue-dependent and epitope-dependent preapoptotic state correlated with reduced expression of IL-7Rα.

CD8(+) T-cell memory to viruses is stable in the absence but volatile in the presence of other infections. Apoptotic events that occur early in acute infections delete pre-existing memory T cells, leaving the host with reduced memory (except for cross-reactive responses) to previously encountered viruses. Apoptotic events also silence the acute immune response, leaving the host with a residual population of memory T cells. Persistent infections can induce apoptotic deletions of memory T cells that are specific to the persisting virus and to previously encountered pathogens.