T cells facilitate Brugia malayi development in TCRαnull mice

Babu, S., Shultz, L. D., and Rajan, T. V. 1999. T cells facilitate Brugia malayi development in TCR alpha(null) mice. Experimental Parasitology 93, 55-57. The host-parasite interactions of Brugia malayi in mice are complex and multifactorial. In order to study the role of T cells in early B. malayi development, we infected TCR alpha(null) mice, which retain a population of CD4(+) TCR beta(+) cells and TCR beta(null) mice, which lack all TCR alpha beta(+) T cells. TCR alpha(null) mice were permissive to L4 larval and adult worm development but TCR beta(null) mice were not. Depletion of the CD4(+) T cells in the former abrogated the permissive phenotype. It appears that the CD4(+) TCR beta(+) T cells that have been described in TCR alpha(null) mice may facilitate early B. malayi development. These data are similar to our earlier demonstration of the role of NK cells in facilitating worm growth in SCID mice. (C) 1999 Academic Press.