Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 22, 2026

High-throughput Assay to Phenotype Salmonella enterica Typhimurium Association, Invasion, and Replication in Macrophages
Published on: August 11, 2014
Culling of activated CD4 T cells during typhoid is driven by Salmonella virulence genes
Aparna Srinivasan1, Minelva Nanton, Amanda Griffin
1Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, Center for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Translational Research, McGuire Translational Research Facility, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
Abstract:
Pathogen-specific CD4 T cells are activated within a few hours of oral Salmonella infection and are essential for protective immunity. However, CD4 T cells do not participate in bacterial clearance until several weeks after infection, suggesting that Salmonella can inhibit or evade CD4 T cells that are activated at early time points. Here, we describe the progressive culling of initially activated CD4 T cells in Salmonella-infected mice. Loss of activated CD4 T cells was independent of early instructional programming, T cell precursor frequency, and Ag availability. In contrast, apoptosis of Ag-specific CD4 T cells was actively induced by live bacteria in a process that required Salmonella pathogenicity island-2 and correlated with increased expression of PD-L1. These data demonstrate efficient culling of initially activated Ag-specific CD4 cells by a microbial pathogen and document a novel strategy for bacterial immune evasion.
Related Concept Videos
Cytotoxic T Cells-mediated Immune Response
Immunological surveillance is the ability of immune cells to monitor and eliminate infected cells with intracellular pathogens, neoplastically transformed cells, and cells with non-self antigens. Cytotoxic T cells and NK...
T Cell Activation and Clonal Selection
Naive T cells that have not yet encountered an antigen express two primary CD...
T Cell Types and Functions
Th1 cells stimulate dendritic cells to express necessary co-stimulatory molecules on their surfaces for...
Defense Against Bacterial Pathogens
Phagocytes
Phagocytes are the frontline soldiers of the immune system. They include neutrophils and macrophages. Neutrophils are the most abundant type of white blood cell and are quickly mobilized to the site of infection. Macrophages are larger cells that patrol...

