High antigen levels are the cause of T cell exhaustion during chronic viral infection

Abstract

Many persistent viral infections induce dysfunctional T cell responses. Although a negative correlation exists between viral load and T cell responses during chronic infection, it is not known whether high antigen levels are the cause or just the consequence of T cell exhaustion. Furthermore, it is unclear what role antigen presentation by bone-marrow (BM) derived versus infected parenchymal cells has on T cell exhaustion. To address these issues, we examined the influence of antigen presentation by different cell types on CD8 + T cell responses during persistent infection of mice with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) clone 13. We generated BM chimeric mice, in which non-BM derived ..