BATF3-dependent dendritic cells drive both effector and regulatory T-cell responses in bacterially infected tissues.

• Main Authors: Isabelle C Arnold, Xiaozhou Zhang, Mariela Artola-Boran, Angela Fallegger, Peter Sander, Pål Johansen, Anne Müller
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2019-06-01
• Series: PLoS Pathogens
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1007866

The gastric lamina propria of mice that have been experimentally infected with the pathobiont Helicobacter pylori hosts a dense network of myeloid cells that includes BATF3-dependent CD103+ dendritic cells (DCs). We show here that CD103+ DCs are strictly required for gastric Th1 responses to H. pylori and for H. pylori infection control. A similar dependence of type 1 immunity on CD103+ DCs is observed in a Mycobacterium bovis BCG infection model, and in a syngeneic colon cancer model. Strikingly, we find that not only the expansion and/or recruitment of Th1 cells, but also of peripherally induced, neuropilin-negative regulatory T-cells to sites of infection requires BATF3-dependent DCs. A shared feature of the examined models is the strongly reduced production of the chemokines and CXCR3 ligands CXCL9, 10 and 11 in BATF3-deficient mice. The results implicate BATF3-dependent DCs in the recruitment of CXCR3+ effector and regulatory T-cells to target tissues and in their local expansion.