Diminished secondary CTL response in draining lymph nodes on cutaneous challenge with herpes simplex virus

Abstract

We have shown that C57BL/6-derived CD8+ CTL specific for an immunodominant herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) glycoprotein B (gB) determinant express a highly conserved VB1O/junctional sequence combination. This extreme T cell receptor B-chain bias can be used to track the activation of gB-specific CTL in lymph nodes draining the site of HSV-1 infection. In this report we have examined the accumulation of gB-specific CTL in the primary and secondary or recall CTL responses to HSV-1 infection. We found that gB-specific cytolytic activity present within popliteal lymph nodes draining HSV-infected foot-pads peaked at day 5 post-infection during the primary response. As found previously, this c..