AbstractVibrio choleraeO1 can cause life threatening diarrheal disease if left untreated. A long lasting immune response, producing 3-5 years of protection from subsequent, symptomatic disease following natural infection, is mediated by B cell mediated humoral immunity. T cells can play critical roles in inducing such immunity. However, the mechanism of T cell dependent B cell maturation and whether a key sub-population of T cells are involved is not well established in cholera. We hypothesized that a specific population of T cells, follicular helper T (Tfh) cells, are involved in B cell maturation following cholera; we used flow cytometry, culture and colorimetric assays to address this question. We found thatV. choleraeinfection induces significant increase in circulating Tfh cells expressing B cell maturation associated protein CD40L early in disease. The increased Tfh cells expressing CD40L recognize cholera toxin most prominently, with lessened responses to two antigens tested,V. choleraemembrane preparation (MP) andVibrio choleraecytolysin (VCC). We further showed that early induction of Tfh cells and CD40L was associated with later memory B cell responses to same antigens. Lastly, we demonstratedin vitrothat Tfh cells isolated after cholera can stimulate class switching of cocultured, isolated B cells from patients with cholera, leading to production of the more durable IgG antibody isotype. These studies were conducted on circulating Tfh cells; future studies will be directed at examining role of Tfh cells during cholera directly in the gut mucosa of biopsied samples, at the single cell level if feasible.
W5-2^|^emsp;^|^emsp;Lymphopenia-induced proliferation (LIP) triggers the development of follicular helper T (TFH) cells which have a distinctive ontogeny and a critical role in aberrant B cell responses
