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The Journal of Immunology, 2002, 168: 4455-4461.
Copyright © 2002 by The American Association of Immunologists

Generation of CD8+ T Cell Memory in Response to Low, High, and Excessive Levels of Epitope1

E. John Wherry2, Michael J. McElhaugh3 and Laurence C. Eisenlohr4

Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Kimmel Cancer Institute, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA 19107


    Abstract
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 
The magnitude of a virus-specific memory CTL population can dramatically influence the outcome of secondary infections, yet little is known about the determinants of memory size. We investigated the impact of epitope levels on CTL memory generation by using a recombinant vaccinia virus system that allows for a broad range of epitope expression with the same infectious dose of virus. The size of the memory pool was examined using MHC class I/peptide tetramer staining and IFN-{gamma} ELISPOT analysis following priming with viruses expressing low, high, or excessive epitope levels. The size of the epitope-specific CD8+ T cell memory population correlates with Ag dose at the low and high levels of epitope expression. However, at excessive epitope levels, the number of functional, IFN-{gamma}-producing, epitope-specific memory cells is significantly reduced compared with the number of tetramer+ cells. These results demonstrate that the level of epitope expressed during an acute viral infection in vivo can dramatically influence CTL memory size. Furthermore, when epitope is overexpressed, the quality of the response can be adversely affected. Therefore, epitope expression level is an important consideration when developing approaches to optimize CTL memory induction.


    Introduction
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 
Acute viral infections result in the massive expansion of MHC class I-restricted CTLs. At the peak of an antiviral response, up to 50% of all CD8+ T cells can be virus-specific (1, 2). Following this expansion, the majority (up to 90–95%) of the Ag-specific cells die and a stable pool of epitope-specific memory T cells is established (1, 3). Virus-specific memory CTLs can be detected for up to 50 years in humans and the lifetime of a laboratory mouse without apparent reencounter with Ag (3, 4). Importantly, the size of this long-lived virus-specific memory T cell pool established following primary infection remains essentially unchanged in the absence of additional immune stimulation (1, 3).

Evidence suggests that the size and quality of a virus-specific memory CTL population can significantly influence the ability to control a secondary infection. First, adoptive transfer experiments have shown that low numbers of memory cells are less effective than high numbers in the control of virus replication or protection from lethal challenge (5, 6). Second, an elevated frequency of prechallenge, vaccine-induced CTL correlates strongly with greater viral control upon SIV challenge in macaques (7). In addition to the size of the virus-specific memory T cell pool, the quality of those cells can also influence their effectiveness. Memory CTLs specific for different viral epitopes provide distinct levels of protection upon secondary challenge (6, 8). Finally, T cell avidity may influence memory T cell effectiveness because high avidity CTL lines mediate greater protection from challenge than low avidity CTLs (9).

Because of the potential impact on memory T cell effectiveness, it is important to investigate how memory T cell populations are shaped quantitatively and qualitatively. Limiting dilution studies following Sendai virus infection have demonstrated that the size of the peak antiviral CTL population correlates with the size of the resulting memory pool (10). Furthermore, the relationship between the size of the peak and memory populations holds for dominant and subdominant epitopes regardless of the absolute magnitude of the individual responses (1). This suggests that the size of the peak antiviral T cell population influences, or is at least a predictor of, the size of the resulting memory pool. In addition to quantitative characteristics, the quality of memory CTLs is also determined early in the primary response since the TCR repertoire of epitope-specific cells at the peak and in the memory pool is similar (11, 12). These studies highlight the importance of understanding how various components of primary antigenic stimulation will impact Ag-specific T cell memory.

Recently, we (13) and others (14) have examined the influence of the level of epitope expressed during in vivo CTL priming on the magnitude of the initial epitope-specific CTL population. Epitope expression levels dramatically influence the magnitude of the initial responding epitope-specific CTL population since graded primary epitope-specific T cell responses are generated over a wide range of epitope levels (13, 14). Interestingly, these studies also showed that the maximal T cell response was achieved at submaximal levels of epitope expression (13, 14). However, the influence of epitope levels on the development of memory T cell populations was not examined in earlier experiments. In the present study we examine the induction of epitope-specific CTL memory in response to a range of epitope expression that exceeds 75-fold in the face of a constant level of vaccinia virus (VV)5 infection. Using this system of variable Ag expression, we have investigated the influence of epitope expression level during initial CTL priming on the size of the epitope-specific CTL memory pool. Our results demonstrate that, for a given epitope, low or high levels of peptide availability during the initial CTL expansion result in correspondingly small or large epitope-specific memory populations. However, an excessive level of epitope expression does not yield an increase in memory size over that achieved at high levels of epitope and results in a qualitatively inferior memory CTL population.


    Materials and Methods
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 
Mice, cells, and virus

Six to 8-wk-old female C57BL/6 mice were purchased from Taconic Laboratories (Albany, NY) and maintained in the Thomas Jefferson University Animal Facilities (Philadelphia, PA). The murine fibroblast cell line L929 transfected with the Kb gene (L-Kb, H-2Kb-expressing) cells; kindly provided by Dr. Y. Patterson, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA) and 143B Hu TK- cells (CRL 8303; American Type Culture Collection, Manassas, VA) were maintained in DMEM supplemented with 5% FCS at 9% CO2. The rVVs, M50 (negative control), hairpin (HP)19 full-length chimeric protein (termed NP/S), HP17 NP/S, HP0 NP/S, and (M)SIINFEKL have been previously described (13). Expansion and titering was performed on 143B HuTK- cells.

ELISPOT analysis

Mice were immunized i.p. with either 107 PFU or the indicated dose of the various rVVs. At the indicated times, postinfection spleens were harvested and IFN-{gamma} ELISPOT performed essentially as described (13). As stimulators, L-Kb cells were pulsed for 1 h with 10-8 M SIINFEKL (aa 257–264 of chicken OVA) in the presence of 3.3 µg/ml {beta}2-microglobulin (Scripps Laboratories, La Jolla, CA). The VV-specific T cell response was assessed using modified vaccinia Ankara-infected L-Kb cells as stimulators as described (13). To normalize SIINFEKL-specific responses, the average VV-specific response from all mice in a given experiment was determined. The fold difference from the mean VV response was calculated for each rVV-induced response (fold difference = (average VV - individual VV)/individual VV). The corresponding ELISPOT-determined SIINFEKL-specific T cell number was then multiplied by the appropriate VV fold difference from mean to obtain a normalized epitope-specific population size. Any mice for which the VV fold difference from mean exceeded 3.0 (or below -3.0) were excluded from the analysis.

Flow cytometry

A total of 106 spleen cells were stained with anti-CD8 (53–6.7, BD PharMingen, San Diego, CA), in some cases, anti-CD44 (IM7, BD PharMingen) or anti-CD69 (H1.2F3, BD PharMingen), and MHC class I/peptide tetramers of H-2Kb/SIINFEKL or an irrelevant tetramer, H-2Kd/influenza NP147–155, for 30–60 min at 4°C. Cells were washed three times with PBS/0.1% BSA + azide and resuspended in 2% paraformaldehyde before examining by flow cytometry in the Kimmel Cancer Center Flow Cytometry Facility (Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA). Data were analyzed using WinMDI software (Scripps Laboratories).


    Results
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 
Ag expression system

We have developed a system to modulate Ag expression from a constant dose of rVV by inserting thermostable duplex barriers, or HP, of different sizes between the promoter and primary initiation codon of the Ag of interest (13, 15, 16). The larger the HP, the lower the level of Ag produced and cell-surface epitope expressed both in vitro and in vivo (13). In the studies described below we have examined the response to the H-2Kb-restricted OVA257–264 epitope (single letters SIINFEKL) from chicken OVA when expressed in an NP/S alone, when NP/S is expressed behind a HP, or when the SIINFEKL epitope is expressed by a minigene (13). NP/S is composed of full-length influenza A PR/8/34 nucleoprotein into which SIINFEKL was inserted at amino acid position 366. Three SIINFEKL-expressing rVVs (and a negative control) were used for most of the experiments (see Table IGo). These recombinants were chosen to examine the generation of epitope-specific CTL memory following expression of low (HP19/NP/S), high (HP0/NP/S), and excessive ((M)SIINFEKL) levels of epitope. Using these rVVs, it is possible to investigate the influence of epitope expression level on CTL memory generation in vivo over a wide range (>75-fold) of epitope levels without changing the infectious dose of virus (13).


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Table I. VV recombinants

 
Vaccinia-specific priming

One advantage of the rVV HP system is that the anti-VV response can be monitored ensuring that observed changes in epitope-specific responses are not due to major differences in the level of infection or overall antiviral immune response. In fact, during the course of priming experiments using various rVVs, we noted some minor variation in the magnitude of the overall T cell response to VV (Fig. 1GoA). The reason for this variation is unknown, but it is unlikely to be a result of the expression of the inserted T cell epitope. First, no consistent pattern of variation was observed between different rVVs. Second, as illustrated in Fig. 1GoB, the magnitude and kinetics of the anti-VV response is similar for all four rVVs described above. However, it is important to determine how subtle differences in the overall anti-VV immune response impacts the SIINFEKL-specific population. If this variation occurs in a predictable manner, affecting both the epitope-specific and virus-specific responses equally, then epitope-specific populations can be accurately analyzed and epitope-specific responses can be normalized according to the level of VV-specific priming.



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FIGURE 1. The level of the SIINFEKL-specific T cell response is tightly linked to the magnitude of the overall anti-VV response. A, The variability in VV-specific T cell priming that can be observed in individual mice. This variability does not correlate with particular rVVs, since the same stock of virus primed for low and high VV-specific responses in different experiments (data not shown). Mice were immunized with 107 PFU of the indicated rVV and total VV-specific T cells quantitated at day 7 and 30 by IFN-{gamma} ELISPOT. B, The magnitude of the anti-VV response over time as measured by ELISPOT following priming 107 PFU of the indicated rVV. C, The SIINFEKL-specific response vs the total VV-specific response detected by IFN-{gamma} ELISPOT following priming with 3 x 104, 105, 3 x 105, 106, or 3 x 106 PFU/mouse of HP17 rVV. Multiple repeat experiments yielded R2 values ranging from 0.9452 to 0.9724 at days 7 and 14 postimmunization. Similar results were observed using the (M)SIINFEKL rVV (data not shown). The generation of HP17 rVV and the SIINFEKL-specific response primed by this construct has been previously described (13 ). D, SIINFEKL-specific IFN-{gamma} ELISPOT data from the mice (A) before and after normalization as described in Materials and Methods.

 
To determine the impact of such alterations in total VV-specific priming on the response to the SIINFEKL epitope, the following experiment was performed. Mice were immunized with different doses of rVV (covering a 100-fold range) expressing the SIINFEKL epitope, and SIINFEKL-specific and VV-specific T cell populations were quantitated by IFN-{gamma} ELISPOT analysis at each priming dose. As shown in Fig. 1GoC, there is a strong correlation between the magnitude of the VV-specific response and the magnitude of the SIINFEKL-specific response. When these data are converted to percent maximal response the slope of the best fit linear regression curve approaches 1.0, indicating that the changes in the epitope-specific and overall antiviral T cell response are directly proportional when viral dose is altered (data not shown). This demonstrates that subtle variations in the total virus-specific response will have minor, but predictable, impact upon the SIINFEKL-specific response. As a result, the number of epitope-specific cells/spleen in a given experiment can be normalized according to the number of VV-specific cells/spleen detected. Fig. 1GoD shows the SIINFEKL-specific response measured by IFN-{gamma} ELISPOT from the same mice as represented in Fig. 1GoA both before and after normalization at the peak of the response (day 7) and in the memory phase (day 30). An arbitrary cutoff of a 3-fold difference from mean VV response was used to eliminate from consideration extreme cases for which the relationship shown in Fig. 1GoC may not hold. Unless otherwise stated, the following ELISPOT data have been normalized based on the number of VV-specific cells/spleen, and in all cases multiple experiments yielded similar results. In no case did normalization alter the hierarchy of the SIINFEKL-specific responses to the different rVVs used in this study (data not shown).

The impact of epitope expression levels on the magnitude of CTL memory

The rVV HP system was used to express low (HP19), high (HP0), or excessive (MSIINFEKL) levels of epitope and the sizes of the epitope-specific and VV-specific populations at the peak and memory phases were quantitated. Responses were examined either 7 or 8 days following priming for the peak and >30 days postinoculation for the memory response. The number of epitope-specific cells at the peak and during memory was quantitated using both functional IFN-{gamma} ELISPOT analysis (Fig. 2GoA) and staining with soluble MHC/peptide tetramers of Kb/SIINFEKL (Fig. 2Go, B and C). This latter analysis allows both the frequency (Fig. 2GoB) and absolute number (Fig. 2GoC) of epitope-specific cells to be determined by flow cytometry (1, 17). The magnitude of the SIINFEKL-specific response detected both functionally (Fig. 2GoA) and by MHC tetramer staining (Fig. 2Go, B and C) at the peak of the response closely parallels the level of epitope expression expected from the rVV panel (see Table IGo). HP19, HP0, and (M)SIINFEKL elicit progressively larger SIINFEKL-specific CTL populations at this time. When the memory phase was examined, the relationship between the size of the populations primed by HP19 and HP0 is maintained whether examined by IFN-{gamma} ELISPOT or tetramer staining. Despite expressing a higher level of epitope and stimulating the largest anti-SIINFEKL population at the peak, the minigene rVV elicits a SIINFEKL-specific memory population that is smaller than that elicited by HP0 (~2- to 4-fold) as detected by IFN-{gamma} ELISPOT. This is in agreement with our previous observation that the priming with (M)SIINFEKL rVV results in a smaller response than HP0 as detected by functional readouts except at early time points (13). Interestingly, the response to (M)SIINFEKL is of similar size, or even slightly larger, relative to HP0 responses, when measured using MHC tetramer staining. Therefore, tetramer staining indicates that significantly more memory cells are present following minigene priming than are detected functionally.



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FIGURE 2. Epitope expression level determines epitope-specific CTL memory size. Mice were immunized with 107 PFU of the indicated HP rVVs and the size of the SIINFEKL-specific CTL cell populations induced quantitated at the peak and memory phases of the response. A, The SIINFEKL-specific response detected using IFN-{gamma} ELISPOT analysis of spleen populations. Multiple repeat experiments yielded similar results (data not shown). Neither the difference between HP19 and HP0 nor HP0 and (M)SIINFEKL is statistically significant at the peak while only the difference between HP19 and HP0 in memory achieves statistical significance (p = 0.04) in the experiments shown. B, Representative experiment determining the frequency of SIINFEKL-specific cells detected in spleen populations by flow cytometry using Kb/SIINFEKL tetramers at the peak or memory phase of the response. The percentages indicate the average percent of CD8+ T cells that are tetramer+ for 3–5 mice with the SD in parenthesis. At the peak, tetramer staining for HP19 is significantly higher than control (p = 0.00004), HP0 is significantly greater than HP19 (p = 0.00001), and (M)SIINFEKL is significantly greater than HP0 (p = 0.047) by Student’s t test. At the memory time point, HP19 is significantly greater than control (p = 0.007) and significantly lower than minigene (p = 0.004). The percentage of cells staining with control tetramer for M50, HP19, HP0 and (M)SIINFEKL was 0.00%, 0.09%, 0.00%, and 0.00% for the peak, and 0.14%, 0.05%, 0.03%, and 0.10% for memory, respectively. C, The absolute number of SIINFEKL-specific cells determined by tetramer staining at the peak and memory time points. Each bar represents the average of 2–3 mice. *, p < 0.05 by Student’s t test.

 
Kinetics of the Kb/SIINFEKL response following priming with different levels of epitope

To examine more carefully the kinetics of the SIINFEKL-specific response following priming with viruses expressing different levels of epitope, IFN-{gamma} ELISPOT and Kb/SIINFEKL tetramer staining were performed at several times during both the acute and memory phases of the response to rVV infection. Fig. 3Go shows the number of SIINFEKL-specific cells/spleen detected by both techniques over time. Control virus (M50)-elicited responses were at or below the limits of detection for both ELISPOT and tetramer staining except at early time points in ELISPOT analysis when VV Ags from the original viral inoculum may still be present (data not shown). As demonstrated in Fig. 3GoA, the size of the epitope-specific population generated by HP19 is 1.5- to 5-fold lower than that elicited by HP0 at all time points. This is true whether measured using IFN-{gamma} ELISPOT analysis or by MHC/peptide tetramer staining. In comparing the responses generated by the two higher expressing constructs, HP0 and (M)SIINFEKL, it is apparent that they are essentially equivalent by tetramer analysis. (Fig. 3GoB). They are also equivalent by IFN-{gamma} ELISPOT analysis at all points during the first week of the response. However, following the peak (day 7), there is clearly a divergence, with the persistence of many more IFN-{gamma}-producing cells following HP0 inocululation than (M)SIINFEKL inoculation (Fig. 3GoA). This is true even at an early point (day 14) during the generation of memory and by day 30 the (M)SIINFEKL-induced response, measured by ELISPOT, is ~4-fold lower than that generated by HP0 rVV. The difference between direct detection using tetramers and functional detection of (M)SIINFEKL-primed T cells using IFN-{gamma} ELISPOT analysis is further illustrated in Table IIGo which shows the percent of Kb/SIINFEKL tetramer-staining cells detected by IFN-{gamma} ELISPOT at the peak and memory time points as well as the peak to memory ratio following HP rVV priming. The peak to memory ratios illustrate that ~10–15% of the SIINFEKL-specific T cells survive into memory following HP19 or HP0 priming, but only ~3.5% survive following (M)SIINFEKL priming. Importantly, the fraction of the VV-specific response that survives the death phase is similar for all three constructs. In contrast to the ELISPOT data, there is no major difference in the magnitude of contraction of the SIINFEKL-specific response generated by the three constructs from peak to memory measured by tetramer staining. These results illustrate that following (M)SIINFEKL rVV priming, a lower fraction of the tetramer+ memory population is detected functionally than is detected following HP0 or HP19 priming.



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FIGURE 3. The kinetics of SIINFEKL-specific T cell responses following HP rVV priming. The kinetics of the SIINFEKL-specific T cell response was followed over time by IFN-{gamma} ELISPOT and tetramer staining following immunization with 107 PFU of the indicated rVV. A, SIINFEKL-specific CTL response, elicited by HP19, HP0, and (M)SIINFEKL is measured using IFN-{gamma} ELISPOT. HP0-generated responses are significantly larger than the HP19-generated responses (Student’s t test; p < 0.05) at all time points. The HP0-generated responses are significantly larger than the (M)SIINFEKL-generated responses at day 35 (p < 0.05). B, SIINFEKL-specific CTL response, elicited by HP19, HP0, and (M)SIINFEKL is measured using Kb/SIINFEKL MHC tetramer staining. The HP0 response is significantly larger than the HP19 response at days 7 and 35 (p < 0.05). Background SIINFEKL-specific responses following priming with control VV were below 103 cells/spleen after the peak for ELISPOT and below 104 cells/spleen after the peak for tetramer.

 

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Table II. ELISPOT vs tetramer detection of Kb/SIINFEKL-specific CD8 T cells

 

    Discussion
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 
We have investigated the influence of MHC class I-restricted epitope expression level during an acute viral infection on the size of the resulting epitope-specific CTL memory population. Priming with HP rVVs expressing low, high, or excessive levels of the SIINFEKL epitope demonstrates that a change in the level of expression of a given epitope during initial CTL priming can determine the magnitude of the resulting epitope-specific memory T cell population. A low level of epitope available during priming results in a small epitope-specific burst and leads to a small memory pool. High-level epitope expression generates a much larger burst and a corresponding increase in the size of the epitope-specific memory population. Interestingly, doubling the expression of epitope to excessive levels using a minigene marginally enhances the size of the initial SIINFEKL-specific population, but results in a significantly smaller memory pool as detected functionally by IFN-{gamma} ELISPOT. With respect to low (HP19) and high (HP0) epitope expression levels, our results are consistent with previous studies that have illustrated a relationship between initial virus-specific CTL burst size and the size of the resulting memory population (1, 3, 10). In addition, we demonstrate here that epitope levels during primary CTL stimulation can be a major determinant of epitope-specific T cell memory size.

An advantage of the rVV approach is that the T cell response to the entire virus and the epitope-specific response can be assessed in parallel allowing the normalization of epitope-specific responses based on the level of VV-specific priming. This approach also allows the determination of the fraction of the total antiviral response that is epitope-specific. The SIINFEKL-specific population generated by HP19 is nearly 1/70 the VV-specific population, while that induced by HP0 is ~1/11 at the memory time point, indicating the potential influence of epitope levels on immunodominance. The ability of changes in epitope levels to alter the fraction of the total response specific for SIINFEKL is remarkable when it is considered that VV has the capacity to express ~200 proteins (18, 19) and clearly stimulates a potent T cell response on its own.

Increasing epitope expression from high to excessive levels does not significantly increase the number of SIINFEKL-specific cells detected at the peak. However, functional IFN-{gamma} ELISPOT analysis alone suggests that minigene priming results in a smaller memory population, in apparent contradiction with the expected correlation between the burst size and memory size. However, ELISPOT analysis cannot determine whether SIINFEKL-specific cells have been eliminated or whether they persist in some altered or anergic state following minigene priming. Given that the tetramer staining more accurately represents the size of the population induced by (M)SIINFEKL, the dichotomy between functional and structural detection may indicate a change in the quality of the memory population generated by the minigene rVV. Our results are an interesting contrast to the recent reports of tetramer-negative, but functional, epitope-specific CD8+ T cells (20, 21). It will be of great interest to identify the factors that determine the widely disparate states that memory CD8+ T cells are capable of achieving. One possible explanation for the reduced functional detection of (M)SIINFEKL-primed T cells is that they have become nonfunctional as a result of overstimulation or inappropriate stimulation. Nonfunctional, anergic, or "exhausted" CTLs have been described during chronic viral infections or malignant transformation (22, 23, 24, 25). However, such functionally incapable cells appear to arise only when continued chronic antigenic stimulation can occur. Because VV causes an acute infection (31, 32), Ag is unlikely to remain in an immunogenic form capable of extended stimulation and exhaustion of epitope-specific cells. Indeed, in contrast to other nonfunctional T cells (22, 23, 24, 25), all tetramer-staining cells detected following the peak of minigene rVV priming express low levels of the early activation Ag, CD69 (data not shown), consistent with the absence of continued antigenic stimulation. A second possible reason for the decrease in detectable IFN-{gamma}-producing minigene-primed T cells is immune deviation. Excessive epitope levels may result in a skewing of the response from predominantly IFN-{gamma} producing Tc1 cells to IL-10 producing Tc2 cells (26, 27). However, no IL-10 producing SIINFEKL-specific cells can be detected by ELISPOT following minigene priming (data not shown). It is also possible that the form of the Ag expressed (full-length protein vs the minigene-encoded epitope) influences functional CD8 T cell induction or maintenance. For example, cross presentation may occur preferentially for one form (e.g., peptides carried by heat shock proteins) leading to differential usage of professional APC. However, a minigene rVV construct expressing the influenza NP50–57 epitope primes for a similar or larger functional epitope-specific response in C3H mice than does rVV expressing full-length NP (13 and data not shown). Thus, while direct comparison of the influence of Ag form vs epitope level will be an important area of future investigation using the rVV HP system, we conclude that under the conditions used, excessive epitope production is the basis for development of the tetramer+/IFN-{gamma}- memory T cell population. It should also be noted that results similar to ours have been reported by Bullock et al. (14), where a decrease in the generation of functional CD8+ T cells was noted using dendritic cells coated with increasing concentrations of peptide alone.

Another interpretation of these results is that the high level of epitope expressed by (M)SIINFEKL results in qualitatively inferior memory cells that are less efficiently detected by IFN-{gamma} ELISPOT analysis at the concentrations of synthetic peptide that were used (10-8 M). It has been suggested that competition between T cells for antigenic stimulation may lead to selection of particular clones entering the response (28, 29). It is possible that excessive epitope expression could result in increased recruitment of low-affinity T cells, and that these cells are more easily detected functionally as highly activated effectors at the peak than as resting memory cells. Alternatively, a recent study suggests that differences in functional avidity can occur as a result of altered signal transduction due to changes in the level of Lck expression (30). It should be noted that similar ELISPOT results were observed using EL-4 cells transfected with OVA as APC which present the SIINFEKL epitope with high efficiency (13 and data not shown). In addition, we have observed loss of effector function (cytolysis) following (M)SIINFEKL vac immunization when synthetic peptide was used at 10-6 M (13). These results are consistent with the generation of (M)SIINFEKL-primed T cells that are essentially nonfunctional rather than responsive only when higher doses of peptide are used. Experiments are underway to elucidate the basis for the striking differences between CTL populations elicited under conditions of high and excessive epitope availability.

Effective CTL memory is a major goal of vaccines against intracellular pathogens. The ability of epitope-specific memory T cells to control or eliminate an infection is likely a result of both the quantity and quality of the antiviral memory CTL population available. We have demonstrated that epitope expression level during initial T cell priming is a major determinant of the size of the resulting memory pool by using rVV generating low (HP19) and high (HP0) epitope levels in vivo. Importantly, the highest level of expression achieved using a minigene ((M)SIINFEKL) may not represent the optimal conditions for inducing an antiviral CTL population. Thus, modulation of MHC class I-restricted epitope expression levels is an important consideration in the design of vaccines.


    Acknowledgments
 
We thank the Kimmel Cancer Institute Flow Cytometry Facility, A. Harth and B. Zietara for technical assistance, J. N. Blattman for helpful discussions, and Elisabeth L. Baur and Susan E. Morrison for assistance in the preparation of this manuscript. MHC tetramers were obtained from the National Institutes of Health MHC tetramer core facility at Emory University (Atlanta, GA).


    Footnotes
 
1 This work was supported by grants from National Institutes of Heath (AI39501 and AI46511) and the American Cancer Society (RPG-98-036-01). E.J.W. was supported by National Institutes of Health Training Grant AIO7492. Back

2 Current address: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Emory Vaccine Center, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322. Back

3 Current address: Merck and Co., WP16A-99, West Point, PA 19486. Back

4 Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Laurence C. Eisenlohr, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Kimmel Cancer Institute, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA 19107. E-mail address: L_Eisenlohr{at}hendrix.jci.tju.edu Back

5 Abbreviations used in this paper: VV, vaccinia virus; HP, hairpin. Back

Received for publication November 16, 2001. Accepted for publication February 26, 2002.


    References
 Top
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results
 Discussion
 References
 

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