Antigen-Specific Memory And Naive Cd4(+)T Cells Following Secondarychlamydia Trachomatisinfection

Memory antigen-specific CD4(+)T cells againstChlamydia trachomatisare necessary for protection against secondary genital tract infection. While it is known that naive antigen-specific CD4(+)T cells can traffic to the genital tract in an antigen-specific manner, these T cells are not protective during primary infection. Here, we sought to compare the differences between memory and naive antigen-specific CD4(+)T cells in the same mouse following secondary infection using transgenic CD4(+)T cells (NR1 T cells). Using RNA sequencing, we found that there were subtle but distinct differences between these two T cell populations. Naive NR1 T cells significantly upregulated cell cycle genes and were more proliferative than memory NR1 T cells in the draining lymph node. In contrast, memory NR1 T cells were more activated than naive NR1 T cells and were enriched in the genital tract. Together, our data provide insight into the differences between memory and naive antigen-specific CD4(+)T cells duringC.trachomatisinfection.