Increased Peripheral IL-4 Leads to an Expanded Virtual Memory CD8+ Population

Abstract

Memory-phenotype CD8+ T cells can arise even in the absence of overt Ag stimulation. Virtual memory (VM) CD8+ T cells are CD8+ T cells that develop a memory phenotype in the periphery of wild-type mice in an IL-15–dependent manner. Innate CD8+ T cells, in contrast, are memory-phenotype CD8+ T cells that develop in the thymus in response to elevated thymic IL-4. It is not clear whether VM cells and innate CD8+ T cells represent two independent T cell lineages or whether they arise through similar processes. In this study, we use mice deficient in Nedd4-family interacting protein 1 to show that overproduction of IL-4 in the periphery leads to an expanded VM population. Nedd4-family interacting protein 1−/− CD4+ T cells produce large amounts of IL-4 due to a defect in JunB degradation. This IL-4 induces a memory-like phenotype in peripheral CD8+ T cells that includes elevated expression of CD44, CD122, and Eomesodermin and decreased expression of CD49d. Thus, our data show that excess peripheral IL-4 is sufficient to cause an increase in the VM population. Our results suggest that VM and innate CD8+ T cells may be more similar than previously appreciated.