Herein, we provide evidence that during allergic inflammation, CCL25 induces the selective migration of IL-17 + γδ T cells mediated by α 4 β 7 integrin. Intrapleural injection of CCL25 into ovalbumin (OVA)-immunized C57BL/6 mice triggered the accumulation of γδ T lymphocytes expressing CCR9 (CCL25 receptor) and α 4 β 7 integrin in the pleura, but failed to attract αβ T lymphocytes. CCL25 attracted CCR6 + γδ T cells producing IL-17 (but not IFN-γ or IL-4). OVA challenge triggered increased production of CCL25 followed by the accumulation of CCR9 + , α 4 β 7 + , and CCR6 + /IL-17 + γδ T cells into the pleural cavities of OVA-immunized mice, which was inhibited by the in vivo neutralization of CCL25. The in vivo blockade of α 4 β 7 integrin also inhibited the migration of IL-17 + γδ T lymphocytes (but not of αβ T lymphocytes) into mouse pleura after OVA challenge, suggesting that the CCL25/α 4 β 7 integrin pathway is selective for γδ T cells. In addition, α 4 β 7 integrin blockade impaired the in vitro transmigration of γδ T cells across endothelium (which expresses α 4 β 7 ligands VCAM-1 and MadCAM-1), which was induced by CCL25 and by cell-free pleural washes recovered from OVA-challenged mice. Our results reveal that during an allergic reaction, CCL25 drives IL-17 + γδ T-cell mobilization to inflamed tissue via α 4 β 7 integrin and modulates IL-17 levels.
Keywords: Adhesion molecules
IntroductionLymphocytes bearing the γδ T-cell receptor (TCR) comprise a minor T-lymphocyte subset in blood and secondary lymphoid tissues and are preferentially localized in epithelial and mucosal tissues [1,2]. This unique subset of lymphocytes can provide rapid tissue-specific immune responses, without the requirement of antiCorrespondence: Dr. Carmen Penido e-mail: cpenido@far.fiocruz.br gen presentation or clonal expansion, and is able to produce a large repertory of Th1-, Th2-, and Th17-associated cytokines [2][3][4][5][6]. These characteristics make γδ T cells a crucial first line of defense during infection, tissue damage, or stress.γδ T cells have been shown to migrate into the airways during allergic inflammation highly controlled by a chemotactic gradient of chemokines produced in tissue [5,[7][8][9][10][11]. We have previously demonstrated that allergen-induced γδ T-cell accumulation is * These authors contributed equally to this work.www.eji-journal.eu Eur. J. Immunol. 2012. 42: 1250-1260 Immunomodulation 1251 paralleled with a marked production of chemokines in the tissue, including CCL25/TECK [11]. CCL25 is mostly described as a homeostatic chemokine that plays a major role in T-cell development in the thymus and in intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs) homing into small intestine mucosa [12]. Recent data have provided evidence that CCL25 production increases during inflammatory processes that take place at nonmucosal tissues, such as autoimmune arthritis, atherosclerosis, and allergy [11,13,14]. Moreover, we and others have shown that γδ T lymphocytes migrate in vitro toward CCL25, via its counterpart receptor CCR9 [11,...