Contribution of lung migratory dendritic cells to the generation of influenza immunity

Owing to the functional heterogeneity of DCs in the lung, there is a need to unravel the in vivo contribution of various DC subpopulations to the generation of influenza immunity. Using our Clec9a-DTR and Clec4a4-DTR transgenic mouse models which allow us to specifically deplete CD103+ cDCs and CD24+CD11b+ cDCs respectively in the lungs, we aimed to study the biology of these DC populations using mouse-adapted influenza A virus strain H1N1/PR8. We found that ablation of these lung-derived DCs led to high sensitivity to infection and severe depletion of influenza-virus specific CD8 T cells in the lungs and more importantly the mechanisms contributing to the reduced number of these pulmonary T cells in Clec9a-DTR and Clec4a4-DTR mice were different. Concurrently our data highlighted the dispensability of these DCs in the formation of homosubtypic immunity, but, they were required for the efficacy of heterosubtypic immunity.DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (SBS