Figure 6: Commensal-specific T cell plasticity and IL-13 production promote wound repair.
(A) Representative contour plots for gating strategy of CCR6 and eYFP expression by CD8+ T cells from the skin of S. epidermidis-colonized Il17aCreR26ReYFP (IL-17AFM) mice following i.d. injection of PBS or IL-18. Contour plots represent IL-5 and IL-17A production potential of IL-17AFM+ Tc17 (CD8+CCR6+eYFP+) or IL-17AFM− Tc17 (CD8+CCR6+eYFP−) T cells following i.d. injection of PBS or IL-18. (B) Frequencies of Th17 cells with IL-17A or IL-5 producing potential from the skin of S. epidermidis-colonized IL-17AFM mice following i.d. injection of PBS or IL-18. (C) Absolute cell number of IL-5 and IL-13-producing lymphocyte subsets in the skin of S. epidermidis-colonized WT mice following i.d. injection of IL-18. Data represented as mean ± SD of five mice per group. (D) Absolute number of eosinophils from the skin of S. epidermidis-colonized WT mice following i.d. injection with PBS or IL-18, and i.p. injection with anti-IL-5 or isotype control. (E-F) Naïve and S. epidermidis-colonized WT and Il13−/− mice, with or without adoptive transfer of BowieTg CD8+ T cells prior to colonization and isotype or anti-IL-13 antibodies at the time of wounding, were subjected to back-skin punch biopsy. Quantification of epithelial tongue length of wound-bed-infiltrating keratinocytes 5 days post wounding. (G) Pathway analysis using differentially expressed genes between d3 isotype and d3 anti-IL-13 wounding groups was performed using Enrichr and graphed based on enrichment score for significant Reactome biological processes. Numbers in representative plots indicate mean ± SD. Bar graphs are represented as mean ± SD. Data represent at least two experiments with 3–7 mice per group. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001 as calculated using one-way (A, B, D) or two-way (C, E, F) ANOVA with Holm–Šidák’s multiple comparison test.