Authors: Palmen MJ, Wijburg OL, Kunst IH, Kroes H, van Rees EP.
Institution: Department of Cell Biology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Summary: CD4+ T cells play an important role in the aetiology of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but it is not clear which factor(s) cause activation of these cells. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of adoptive transfer of splenic (CD4+) T cells from TNBS/ethanol-sensitized donor rats to naive recipients and the migration pattern of transferred T cells. For the transfer experiments, colitis was induced in rats by colonic administration of TNBS/ethanol. Seventeen days later, either total splenic T cells or CD4+, or CD8+ T cells were transferred to naive recipients…The results show that CD4+ T cells from donor rats with TNBS/ethanol-induced colitis migrate in particular to the colon upon transfer to naive recipients, and that this process is down-regulated by CD8+ T cells. This migration is probably caused by T cell recognition of the colonic bacterial flora and initiates an inflammatory reaction in the recipient's colon, characterized by an increase of the recipient's own T cells, macrophages, and neutrophils. In the mice experiments we showed that a second administration of DNBS/ethanol or ethanol alone, which presumably causes bacterial translocation, results in increased numbers of T cells into the colon, accompanied by an increase in Th1 cytokines. These data suggest that Th1 cells recognize the colonic bacterial flora.
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