Chemokine Expression During the Cell-Mediated Immune Response

CD4 helper T cells elicit their immune regulatory function through the secretion of cytokines and chemokines. The amount and timing of cytokines secreted, which is highly correlated with the immune protection, are tightly regulated during the immune response. We are using influenza vaccination as a model to characterize the secretion of chemokines during the immune response in healthy adults. The kinetics of chemokine expression is different from cytokines during the T cell stimulation process. This difference in secretion kinetics coordinates with a regulated program of different mediators and T cell functions. The switch of transcriptional regulatory factors may contribute to the different secretion patterns. We are currently building a model to coordinate the transcriptional factor expression with chemokine expression and T cell function. These experiments will help to better understand T cell function during the immune response and reveal alternative ways to measure the vaccine efficacy through cellular assays.

Kinetics of human CD4 T cell proliferation and cytokine secretion after influenza vaccination in vivo.