Influence of CD8 T cell priming in liver and gut on the enterohepatic circulation

The enterohepatic circuit of T cells may be responsible for the development of autoimmune liver disease. We employed transgenic mice to characterize phenotype and migration patterns of CD8 T cells activated in liver and gut.

We studied the migration of antigen-specific CD8 T cells primed in liver or gut after transfer in wild-type mice or mice that express ovalbumin in liver or gut. We performed transcriptome analysis of these two distinct T cell populations and confirmed our findings by flow cytometry.

Specific migration patterns were induced by activation of CD8 T cells in gut or liver. Gut-activated CD8 T cells expressed α4β7 and CCR9 and migrated to the gut and to the liver. Liver-activated T cells expressed integrins α4, α6, β1, α4β7 as well as CD62L, Ly6C, and neuropilin-1 and retained the capability to re-circulate through lymph nodes. Presence of the antigen increased retention of both types of activated T cells in the liver, but migration of liver-activated T cells to the gut was prohibited.

CD8 T cells primed in the liver in vivo are not capable of migrating to the gut, implying that the enterohepatic circuit of CD8 T cells is in fact a one-way road from the gut to the liver. Priming of CD8 T cells in the liver results in a distinct phenotype with attributes of central memory cells and induces a unique homing pattern. Gut-primed T cells preferentially home to the liver, in principle enabling them to induce autoimmune liver disease.