Back

Coincident epithelial signals restrain commensal-specific CD8αβ+ T cells in the intestine

Olsen, T. M.; Dufort, M. J.; Verma, S.; Makani, V. K. K.; Cameron, B.; Gralen, A. R.; Johnson, A. J.; Joglekar, A. V.; Byrd, A. L.; Lacy-Hulbert, A.; Harrison, O. J.

2026-05-04 immunology
10.64898/2026.04.29.720676 bioRxiv
Show abstract

The intestinal epithelium harbors a large population of microbiota-dependent CD8{beta}+ T cells whose antigen specificity and regulation are ill-defined. By identifying MHCIa-restricted TCRs and generating tetramers against the gut commensal Segmented Filamentous Bacteria, we demonstrate that a single commensal species drives a clonally expanded, antigen-specific CD8{beta}+ T cell within the intraepithelial lymphocyte compartment. Mechanistically, the intestinal epithelium coordinates coincident signals governing this population: peptide:MHC-dependent TCR engagement drives pIEL accumulation, while v{beta}6-mediated TGF{beta} activation restraints effector cell differentiation. Perturbation of epithelial cell-mediated TGF{beta} activation diverts commensal-specific CD8+ T cells toward inflammatory differentiation states transcriptionally convergent with those observed in ulcerative colitis. The intestinal epithelium thus functions as a dual-signal organizer of commensal-specific CD8+ T cell responses, coupling differentiation to restraint through spatially coincident molecular cues.

Matching journals

The top 7 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.

50% of probability mass above

"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.