B cells are an abundant population of lymphocytes that can efficiently capture, process, and present antigen for recognition by activated or memory T cells. Controversial experiments and arguments exist, however, as to whether B cells are or should be involved in the priming of virgin T cells in vivo. Using B cell-deficient mice, we have studied the role of B cells as antigen-presenting cells in a wide variety of tests, including assays of T cell proliferation and cytokine production in responses to protein antigens, T cell killing to minor and major histocompatibility antigens, skin graft rejection, and the in vitro and in vivo responses to shistosome eggs. We found that B cells are not critical for either CD4 or CD8 T cell priming in any of these systems. This finding lends support to the notion that the priming of T cells is reserved for specialized cells such as dendritic cells and that antigen presentation by B cells serves distinct immunological functions.

Long-term persistence of Ag-experienced CD8 cells, a class of T lymphocytes with cytotoxic function, contributes to immunological memory against intracellular pathogens. After Ag clearance, memory CD8 cells are maintained over time by a slow proliferation, primarily cytokine driven. In this article, we show that the bone marrow (BM) is the crucial organ where such basal division of memory CD8 cells occurs. BM memory CD8 cells contain a higher percentage of proliferating cells than their corresponding cells in either spleen or lymph nodes from C57BL/6 mice. This occurs both in the case of memory-phenotype CD44^high CD8 cells and in the case of Ag-specific memory CD8 cells. Importantly, the absolute number of Ag-specific memory CD8 cells dividing in the BM largely exceeds that in spleen, lymph nodes, liver, and lung taken together. In the BM, Ag-specific memory CD8 cells express lower levels of CD127, i.e., the α-chain of IL-7R, than in either spleen or lymph nodes. We interpret these results as indirect evidence that Ag-specific memory CD8 cells receive proliferative signals by IL-7 and/or IL-15 in the BM and propose that the BM acts as a saturable “niche” for the Ag-independent proliferation of memory CD8 cells. Taken together, our novel findings indicate that the BM plays a relevant role in the maintenance of cytotoxic T cell memory, in addition to its previously described involvement in long-term Ab responses.

To study naive and memory CD8 T cell turnover, we performed BrdU incorporation experiments in adult thymectomized C57BL/6 mice and analyzed data in a mathematical framework. The following aspects were novel: 1) we examined the bone marrow, in addition to spleen and lymph nodes, and took into account the sum of cells contained in the three organs; 2) to describe both BrdU-labeling and -delabeling phase, we designed a general mathematical model, in which cell populations were distinguished based on the number of divisions; 3) to find parameters, we used the experimentally determined numbers of total and BrdU⁺ cells and the BrdU-labeling coefficient. We treated mice with BrdU continuously via drinking water for up to 42 days, measured by flow cytometry BrdU incorporation at different times, and calculated the numbers of BrdU⁺ naive (CD44^int/low) and memory (CD44^high) CD8 T cells. By fitting the model to data, we determined proliferation and death rates of both subsets. Rates were confirmed using independent sets of data, including the numbers of BrdU⁺ cells at different times after BrdU withdrawal. We found that both doubling time and half-life of the memory population were ∼9 wk, whereas for the naive subset the doubling time was almost 1 year and the half-life was roughly 7 wk. Our findings suggest that the higher turnover of memory CD8 T cells as compared with naive CD8 T cells is mostly attributable to a higher proliferation rate. Our results have implications for interpreting physiological and abnormal T cell kinetics in humans.