T cell receptor-transgenic mouse models for studying cellular immune responses to Salmonella in vivo

Cellular immune responses are crucial both for protective immunity against salmonellosis, and for the immunogenicity of oral vaccines based on avirulent live Salmonella as antigen carriers. The crucial early steps of T cell induction are difficult to investigate in conventional animals, but recently developed T cell receptor (TCR)-transgenic models allow visualization of antigen-specific T cells in vivo while they become induced. In this review, the results obtained with four different TCR-transgenic Salmonella infection models are described, and advantages and potential limits of each of the different models are compared.