In Situ Detection of Autoreactive CD4 T Cells in Brain and Heart Using Major Histocompatibility Complex Class II Dextramers

Authors

Chandirasegaran Massilamany, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Arunakumar Gangaplara, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Ting Jia, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Christian Elowsky, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Qingsheng Li, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
You Zhou, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Jay Reddy, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2014

Citation

Massilamany, C., Gangaplara, A., Jia, T., Elowsky, C., Li, Q., Zhou, Y., Reddy, J. In Situ Detection of Autoreactive CD4 T Cells in Brain and Heart Using Major Histocompatibility Complex Class II Dextramers. J. Vis. Exp. (90), e51679, doi:10.3791/51679 (2014).

Comments

The video component of this article can be found at http://www.jove.com/video/51679/

Abstract

This report demonstrates the use of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II dextramers for detection of autoreactive CD4 T cells in situ in myelin proteolipid protein (PLP) 139-151-induced experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in SJL mice and cardiac myosin heavy chain-α (Myhc) 334-352-induced experimental autoimmune myocarditis (EAM) in A/J mice. Two sets of cocktails of dextramer reagents were used, where dextramers+ cells were analyzed by laser scanning confocal microscope (LSCM): EAE, IAs/PLP 139-151 dextramers (specific)/anti- CD4 and IAs/Theiler’s murine encephalomyelitis virus (TMEV) 70-86 dextramers (control)/anti-CD4; and EAM, IAk/Myhc 334-352 dextramers/ anti-CD4 and IAk/bovine ribonuclease (RNase) 43-56 dextramers (control)/anti-CD4. LSCM analysis of brain sections obtained from EAE mice showed the presence of cells positive for CD4 and PLP 139-151 dextramers, but not TMEV 70-86 dextramers suggesting that the staining obtained with PLP 139-151 dextramers was specific. Likewise, heart sections prepared from EAM mice also revealed the presence of Myhc 334-352, but not RNase 43-56-dextramer+ cells as expected. Further, a comprehensive method has also been devised to quantitatively analyze the frequencies of antigen-specific CD4 T cells in the ‘Z’ serial images.