0 for Windows. This study was supported by the Public Welfare & Safety Research program (20110020963) through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF)

funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. The authors declare no financial or commercial conflicts of interest. Disclaimer: Supplementary materials have been peer-reviewed but not copyedited. “
“The parasitic gastrointestinal nematode Nippostrongylus brasiliensis induces massive expansion of T helper type 2 (Th2) cells in the lung and small intestine. Th2 cells are a major source of interleukin-4 and interleukin-13, two cytokines that appear essential for rapid worm expulsion. It is unclear whether all Th2 cells induced during infection are pathogen-specific because Th2 cells might PLX4032 solubility dmso also be induced by parasite-derived superantigens or cytokine-mediated bystander activation. Bystander Th2 polarization could explain the largely unspecific B-cell response during primary infection. Furthermore, it is not known whether protective immunity Torin 1 in vitro depends on a polyclonal repertoire of T-cell receptor (TCR) specificities. To address these unresolved issues, we performed adoptive transfer experiments and analysed the TCR-Vβ repertoire before and after infection of mice with the helminth N. brasiliensis.

The results demonstrate that all Th2 cells were generated by antigen-specific rather than superantigen-driven or cytokine-driven

activation. Furthermore, we show that worm expulsion was impaired in mice with a limited repertoire of TCR specificities, indicating that a polyclonal T-cell response is required for protective immunity. Protective immunity against gastrointestinal nematodes is mediated by the cytokines interleukin-4 (IL-4) and IL-13 which are mainly produced by T helper type 2 (Th2) cells, basophils and mast cells.1 Infection of mice with the nematode Nippostrongylus brasiliensis leads to massive accumulation of Th2 cells in the lung and intestine.2 Reverse transcriptase Similarly, high frequencies of Th2 cells are found in several tissues after infection with Heligmosomoides polygyrus, even though this parasite remains localized to the small intestine.3 It is not well understood why helminths in general are such potent Th2 inducers. Secreted products from N. brasiliensis have been shown to contain large glycoproteins that promote Th2 cell differentiation by polarized activation of dendritic cells.4,5 A Th2-inducing component of Schistosoma mansoni egg antigen was recently identified as Omega-1, a T2 ribonuclease that reduces the contact time between dendritic cells and T cells and stimulates dendritic cells for Th2 cell activation.6,7 Other Th2-inducing factors from helminths include complex glycans and proteases.8,9 However, receptors on antigen-presenting cells that recognize these Th2-inducing factors remain largely unknown.