The role of tissue-infiltrating T cells in immunopathology of Chagas disease

Systemic autoimmunity induced by the TLR7/8 agonist Resiquimod causes myocarditis and dilated cardiomyopathy in a new mouse model of autoimmune heart disease

“…One of the salient effects of an autoimmune response is an increase of immune cell infiltration into affected organs and tissues ( Askanas et al, 1994 ; Dosreis, 1999 ; Koo et al, 2013 ; Lafyatis et al, 2007 ; Sun et al, 2013 ). To determine the extent to which Resiquimod treatment causes immune cells to infiltrate the heart, which consequently could be directly responsible for the observed cardiac damage, CFN mice were treated with Resiquimod for 2 weeks and the heart, mediastinal lymph nodes and spleens were harvested at 1 week post-treatment for flow cytometric analysis.…”

“…At 3 weeks post-Resiquimod treatment, which is presumably the peak of infiltration of adaptive immune aggressors, we observed a modest increase in total immune cell numbers in the heart, with a clear lymphocyte dominance, especially B-cells, in both total and relative numbers. Importantly, both B- and T-cells are important pathogenic components of several autoimmune diseases, including SLE, type-1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis ( Askanas et al, 1994 ; Dosreis, 1999 ; Koo et al, 2013 ; Lafyatis et al, 2007 ; Sun et al, 2013 ). However, the role of B-cells in autoimmune disorders varies: in type-1 diabetes, they are predominantly professional antigen-presenting cells ( Dörner et al, 2011 ; Serreze and Silveira, 2003 ; Wong et al, 2004 ), whereas in SLE and rheumatoid arthritis, B-cells contribute to pathology by auto-antibody production ( Dörner et al, 2011 ; Marston et al, 2010 ).…”