AUTHOR=Bier Jasmina , Steiger Sebastian M. , Reichardt Holger M. , Lühder Fred TITLE=Protection of Antigen-Primed Effector T Cells From Glucocorticoid-Induced Apoptosis in Cell Culture and in a Mouse Model of Multiple Sclerosis JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology VOLUME=12 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2021.671258 DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2021.671258 ISSN=1664-3224 ABSTRACT=
Induction of T cell apoptosis constitutes a major mechanism by which therapeutically administered glucocorticoids (GCs) suppress inflammation and associated clinical symptoms, for instance in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients suffering from an acute relapse. The sensitivity of T cells to GC action depends on their maturation and activation status, but the precise effect of antigen-priming in a pathological setting has not been explored. Here we used transgenic and congenic mouse models to compare GC-induced apoptosis between naïve and antigen-specific effector T cells from mice immunized with a myelin peptide. Antigen-primed effector T cells were protected from the pro-apoptotic activity of the synthetic GC dexamethasone in a dose-dependent manner, which resulted in their accumulation relative to naïve T cells