Research paperRespiratory macrophages regulate CD4 T memory responses to mucosal immunization with recombinant adenovirus-based vaccines

•Respiratory macrophages have dual functional roles that regulate CD4 T cell responses to recombinant adenovirus-based vaccination in a stage-dependent manner.•Respiratory macrophages suppress the initial CD4 T cell activation and the subsequent size of tissue-resident CD4 memory T cells.•Respiratory macrophages and potentially circulating monocytes are critically required for the development and fitness of long-term tissue-resident CD4 memory T cells.

Respiratory immunization is an attractive way to generate systemic and mucosal protective memory responses that are required for preventing mucosally transmitted infections. However, the molecular and cellular mechanisms for controlling memory T cell responses remain incompletely understood. In this study, we investigated the role of respiratory macrophage (MΦ) in regulating CD4 T cell responses to recombinant adenovirus-based (rAd) vaccines. We demonstrated that rAd intranasal (i.n.) vaccination induced migration and accumulation of respiratory MΦ and circulatory monocytes in the mediastinal lymph nodes and lung parenchyma. Under the influence of respiratory MΦ CD4 T cells exhibited slow proliferation kinetics and an increased tendency of generating central memory, as opposed to effector memory, CD4 T cell responses in vitro and in vivo. Correspondingly, depletion of MΦ using clodronate-containing liposome prior to i.n. immunization significantly enhanced CD4 T cell proliferation and increased the frequency of CD4 memory T cells in the airway lumen, demonstrating that MΦ initially serve as a negative regulator in limiting generation of mucosal tissue-resident memory CD4 T cells. However, clodronate-containing liposome delivery following i.n. immunization markedly reduced the frequencies of memory CD4 T cells in the airway lumen and spleen, indicating that respiratory MΦ and potentially circulating monocytes are critically required for maintaining long-term memory CD4 T cells. Collectively, our data demonstrate that rAd-induced mucosal CD4 T memory responses are regulated by respiratory MΦ and/or monocytes at multiple stages.