T cells facilitate Brugia malayi development in TCR alpha(null) mice

Babu, S., Shultz, L. D., and Rajan, T. V. 1999. T cells facilitate Brugia m alayi development in TCR alpha(null) mice. Experimental Parasitology 93, 55 -57. The host-parasite interactions of Brugia malayi in mice are complex an d 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 adu lt worm development but TCR beta(null) mice were not. Depletion of the CD4( +) T cells in the former abrogated the permissive phenotype. It appears tha t 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 t o our earlier demonstration of the role of NK cells in facilitating worm gr owth in SCID mice. (C) 1999 Academic Press.