Poster Presentation Australasian Society for Immunology Annual Scientific Meeting 2014

Characterisation of mucosal-associated invariant T cells in wild-type mice using MR1-antigen tetramers. (#222)

Hui-Fern Koay 1 , Azad Rahimpour 1 , Adam P Uldrich 1 2 , Sidonia BG Eckle 1 , James McCluskey 1 , Jamie Rossjohn 2 3 , Daniel G Pellicci 1 2 , Dale I Godfrey 1 2
  1. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
  2. Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Advanced Molecular Imaging, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia
  3. Departent of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia

Mucosal associated invariant T (MAIT) cells represent a unique population of invariant T cells that form a major subset of the innate-like T cell compartment in humans. In contrast to conventional T cells and  Natural Killer T (NKT) cells, which recognise peptides and lipids in the context of MHC and CD1d respectively, MAIT cells are restricted to the non-classical MHC Class-1 like element, MR1. Recently, it has been shown that MAIT cells recognize and are activated by microbial metabolites presented on MR1 (1,3), via their semi-invariant T cell receptor, thus suggesting that MAIT cells play a critical and non-redundant role in pathogen recognition. Despite their apparent importance, our understanding of MAIT cell biology has been severely hampered by the lack of a clear manner in which to identify MAIT cells in mice. In the present study, we show that by using MR1 tetramers loaded with agonist antigens (2), we can specifically and unequivocally identify MAIT cells in both central and peripheral lymphoid organs of wild-type mice by flow cytometry, and furthermore, we provide exciting initial insight into their basal phenotypic profile and functional potential. This work paves the way for exploring MAIT cells in the context of different immune responses and deciphering their role in the immune system.

(Short title - Meet: Mouse Maits.)

  1. Kjer-Nielsen L et al. Nature (2012) MR1 presents microbial vitamin B metabolites to MAIT cells.
  2. Reantragoon R et al. The Journal of Experimental Medicine (2013) Antigen-loaded MR1 tetramers define T cell receptor heterogeneity in mucosal-associated invariant T cells.
  3. Corbett AJ et al. Nature (2014) T-cell activation by transitory neo-antigens derived from distinct microbial pathways.