The intensity of neutrophil infiltration controls the number of antigen-primed CD8 T cells recruited into cutaneous antigen challenge sites

Recruitment of antigen-specific T cells into the skin is a critical initiating event during immune responses to many parasites and tumors as well as T cell-mediated, cutaneous, allergic responses and autoimmune diseases. Mechanisms directing T cell trafficking into skin remain largely undefined. Here, we show that cutaneous contact with reactive antigen induces KC/CXC chemokine ligand 1 production and neutrophil infiltration in an antigen, dose-dependent manner. The intensity of neutrophil infiltration into cutaneous antigen challenge sites, in turn, controls the number of antigen-primed T cells recruited into the site and the magnitude of the immune response elicited. The absence of responses in immune animals challenged with suboptimal doses of antigen is overcome by manipulating neutrophil infiltration that then directs antigen-primed T cell infiltration into the challenge site. This inflammation also directs T cells primed to one antigen (dinitrofluorobenzene) into the site when challenged with a completely different antigen (oxazolone). These results identify the intensity of neutrophil infiltration into cutaneous, antigen-deposition sites as a critical parameter for the level of antigen-primed T cell recruitment to mediate the adaptive immune response. This interplay between the innate and adaptive responses suggests a strategy to modulate, in a positive or negative manner, antigen-primed T cell infiltration into cutaneous inflammation sites.