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(American Journal of Pathology. 2006;168:1898-1909.)
© 2006 American Society for Investigative Pathology
DOI: 10.2353/ajpath.2006.050228

Foxp3-Expressing CD103⁺ Regulatory T Cells Accumulate in Dendritic Cell Aggregates of the Colonic Mucosa in Murine Transfer Colitis

Frank Leithäuser^*, Tamara Meinhardt-Krajina, Kerstin Fink, Beate Wotschke^*, Peter Möller^* and Jörg Reimann

From the Departments of Pathology^* and Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ulm, Ulm; and the Department of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

Little is known of the anatomical compartmentalization of colitogenic or regulatory T-cell responses in the murine transfer colitis model. Therefore, we analyzed the putative function of large intestinal dendritic cell (DC) aggregates, to which donor CD4⁺ T cells selectively home before colitis becomes manifest. The co-stimulatory molecules MHC-II, CD40, CD80, and CD86 were expressed in DC aggregates. IL-23 was primarily absent from DC aggregates at all stages of disease but was expressed at high levels in the severely inflamed lamina propria. Interferon- was up-regulated in the lamina propria during early and advanced disease, whereas in DC aggregates it was detectable to a significant degree only in fully developed colitis. In contrast, Foxp3, a marker of regulatory T cells, was expressed in DC aggregates on T-cell transfer, coinciding with the appearance of CD103⁺ CD25^– T cells in these clusters. Foxp3 was enriched in the CD103⁺ T-cell fraction isolated from the lamina propria of diseased mice. T-cell grafts depleted of CD103⁺ T cells generated similar numbers of colonic CD103⁺ T cells as unfractionated T cells. We conclude that DC aggregates are structures involved in the expansion and/or differentiation of CD103⁺ CD25^– CD4⁺ Foxp3-expressing regulatory T cells.

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