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The Journal Of Immunology Template
  • Cameron Bardwell
Cameron Bardwell

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Abstract

CD8+ T cells can play a protective role in immunity, producing IFN-gamma in the lymph nodes in an early adaptive response to stimulate a protective Th1-type response, although its importance in this process may be only at low infectious doses (Uzonna et al., 2004). CD8+ T cells may additionally help clear parasite infection through grazyme and perforin production via Fas/FasL pathways, although this is still up for debate. Little effect on infection clearance was observed when C57BL/6 mice deficient in granzyme A and B were infected with L. major (Eisert et al., 2002), although the results in this study may be explained by the mouse strain choses rather than the granzyme deficiency (Frischholz). The mechanism of CD8+ activation in Leishmania infection is also uncertain, as intracellular antigens typically stimulate immunity during parasite infection (limiting MHC I's role in antigen presentation), but is hypothesized to be due to cross-presentation between macrophages and DCs (Houde et al., 2003). The role of CD8+ T-cells as a vaccine target may be limited, as it been shown to be non-essential in protection against certain L. major (Wang et al., 1993) and may promote pathology in certain circumstances, such as contributing to skin lesion formation after L. major  infection through disruption of tissue (Belkaid et al., 2002).