Microfluidics sorting enables the isolation of an intact cellular pair complex of CD8+ T cells and antigen-presenting cells in a cognate antigen recognition-dependent manner

PLoS One. 2021 Jun 14;16(6):e0252666. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0252666. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Adaptive immune responses begin with cognate antigen presentation-dependent specific interaction between T cells and antigen-presenting cells. However, there have been limited reports on the isolation and analysis of these cellular complexes of T cell-antigen-presenting cell (T/APC). In this study, we successfully isolated intact antigen-specific cellular complexes of CD8+ T/APC by utilizing a microfluidics cell sorter. Using ovalbumin (OVA) model antigen and OT-I-derived OVA-specific CD8+ T cells, we analyzed the formation of antigen-specific and antigen-non-specific T/APC cellular complexes and revealed that the antigen-specific T/APC cellular complex was highly stable than the non-specific one, and that the intact antigen-specific T/APC complex can be retrieved as well as enriched using a microfluidics sorter, but not a conventional cell sorter. The single T/APC cellular complex obtained can be further analyzed for the sequences of T cell receptor Vα and Vβ genes as well as cognate antigen information simultaneously. These results suggested that this approach can be applied for other antigen and CD8+ T cells of mice and possibly those of humans. We believe that this microfluidics sorting method of the T/APC complex will provide useful information for future T cell immunology research.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antigen Presentation / immunology*
  • Antigen-Presenting Cells / immunology*
  • Antigens / immunology*
  • CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / immunology*
  • CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / metabolism
  • Cell Communication / immunology
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cell Separation / methods*
  • Flow Cytometry / methods
  • HEK293 Cells
  • Humans
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Mice, Knockout
  • Mice, Transgenic
  • Microfluidics / methods*
  • Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell / genetics
  • Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell / immunology
  • Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell / metabolism
  • Reproducibility of Results

Substances

  • Antigens
  • Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the Research Foundation for Microbial Diseases of Osaka University. The Research Foundation for Microbial Diseases of the Osaka University had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.