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Natural killer T cells and CD8+ T cells are dispensable for T cell–dependent allergic airway inflammation

Nature Medicine volume 12, pages 1345–1346 (2006)Cite this article

To the editor:

Allergic airway inflammation (AAI) features airway and peribronchial accumulation of eosinophils and lymphocytes, which is a response to the cytokines interleukin (IL)-4, IL-5 and IL-13. Whereas T-helper type 2 (TH2) cells are clearly important for the development of AAI, it has been reported that natural killer T (NKT) cells1 and activated memory CD8+ T cells2 play essential effector roles in AAI. In contrast to earlier studies3,4, Akbari et al. reported that NKT cell–deficient mice are resistant to allergic asthma and that transfer of NKT cells from wild-type animals to mice deficient in Jα281 (Jα281−/−)—a T-cell antigen receptor (TCR) gene segment used by NKT cells—restored the AAI response1. Further complexity in defining the nature of lymphocytes in AAI came from a recent study by Miyahara et al. demonstrating that CD8-deficient mice are resistant to AAI (ref. 2). Additionally, adoptive transfer of in vitro–activated CD8+ T cells with a memory phenotype restored AAI in these mice2. These results call into question the current paradigm that CD4+ T-helper cells are the main players in allergic asthma.

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Figure 1: Susceptibility to AAI of mice deficient in the expression of various MHC molecules.
Figure 2: Comparison of AAI in Cd1d1−/− mice with or without depletion of CD8+ T cells in BALB/c or C57BL/6 backgrounds.

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Author notes

  1. Yufang Shi and Gobardhan Das: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Genetics, Microbiology and Immunology, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, 661 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, 08854, New Jersey, USA

    Jyoti Das, Yufang Shi & Gobardhan Das

  2. Division of Internal Medicine, Sanofi-Aventis, Bridgewater, 08807, New Jersey, USA

    Paul Eynott, Ray Jupp & Gobardhan Das

  3. Section of Immunobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, 06510, Connecticut, USA

    Alfred Bothwell

  4. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, 37232, Tennessee, USA

    Luc Van Kaer

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  1. Jyoti Das
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Correspondence to Yufang Shi.

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Das, J., Eynott, P., Jupp, R. et al. Natural killer T cells and CD8+ T cells are dispensable for T cell–dependent allergic airway inflammation. Nat Med 12, 1345–1346 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1206-1345

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