{"id":74415,"date":"2026-08-25T11:16:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T09:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/2026\/08\/25\/a-bacterial-microbiome-is-dispensable-for-the-induction-of-cd8-t-cell-exhaustion-valuemiriam-kuhlmann-daphne-del-carmen-kolland-gustavo-pereira-de-almeida-christian-hoffmann-madlain\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T11:16:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T09:16:28","slug":"a-bacterial-microbiome-is-dispensable-for-the-induction-of-cd8-t-cell-exhaustion-valuemiriam-kuhlmann-daphne-del-carmen-kolland-gustavo-pereira-de-almeida-christian-hoffmann-madlain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/2026\/08\/25\/a-bacterial-microbiome-is-dispensable-for-the-induction-of-cd8-t-cell-exhaustion-valuemiriam-kuhlmann-daphne-del-carmen-kolland-gustavo-pereira-de-almeida-christian-hoffmann-madlain\/","title":{"rendered":"A Bacterial Microbiome Is Dispensable for the Induction of CD8 T Cell Exhaustion. [[{&#8220;value&#8221;:&#8221;Miriam Kuhlmann, \nDaphne Del Carmen Kolland, \nGustavo Pereira de Almeida, \nChristian Hoffmann, \nMadlaina von Hoesslin, \nJacqueline Berner, \nChristine Wurmser, \nAnna Akulich, \nAnna M. Schulz, \nCarl\u2010Philipp Hackstein, \nCaspar Ohnmacht, \nDietmar Zehn&#8221;}]]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/cms\/asset\/c547755f-3264-4999-a171-e8ab576e4f24\/eji70238-gra-0001-m.png\" alt=\"A Bacterial Microbiome Is Dispensable for the Induction of CD8 T Cell Exhaustion\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We infected Germ-free and normal SPF mice infected with strains of LCMV that cause chronic infections. In both types of mice, T cell exhaustion progressed to similar levels. Thus, the microbiome is dispensable for the induction of T cell exhaustion.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<h2>ABSTRACT<\/h2>\n<p>Prolonged antigen exposure in chronic viral infections reduces the effector capacity of cytotoxic T cells\u2014a phenomenon known as T cell exhaustion. Development of T cell exhaustion is driven by high viral titers, strong TCR stimulation, and high antigen concentrations associated with strong inflammatory signals. A largely unexplored factor has been the influence of the microbiome in these processes. Here, we report that T cell exhaustion progresses independently of the presence or absence of a microbiome in chronic lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) infections. Virus-specific CD8 T cells in germ-free mice showed high expression of the inhibitory receptor PD-1 and decreased cytokine production. Moreover, their global gene expression patterns, as determined by single-cell sequencing, were similar to those of cells in specific pathogen-free mice. In line with this, we observed similar pathogen loads with and without a microbiome. Thus, our study demonstrates that the microbiome is dispensable for the induction of T cell exhaustion and for the limited virus control seen in chronic LCMV infections.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We infected Germ-free and normal SPF mice infected with strains of LCMV that cause chronic infections. In both types of mice, T cell exhaustion progressed to similar levels. Thus, the microbiome is dispensable for the induction of T cell exhaustion. ABSTRACT Prolonged antigen exposure in chronic viral infections reduces the effector capacity of cytotoxic T &#8230; <a title=\"A Bacterial Microbiome Is Dispensable for the Induction of CD8 T Cell Exhaustion. [[{&#8220;value&#8221;:&#8221;Miriam Kuhlmann, \nDaphne Del Carmen Kolland, \nGustavo Pereira de Almeida, \nChristian Hoffmann, \nMadlaina von Hoesslin, \nJacqueline Berner, \nChristine Wurmser, \nAnna Akulich, \nAnna M. Schulz, \nCarl\u2010Philipp Hackstein, \nCaspar Ohnmacht, \nDietmar Zehn&#8221;}]]\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/2026\/08\/25\/a-bacterial-microbiome-is-dispensable-for-the-induction-of-cd8-t-cell-exhaustion-valuemiriam-kuhlmann-daphne-del-carmen-kolland-gustavo-pereira-de-almeida-christian-hoffmann-madlain\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about A Bacterial Microbiome Is Dispensable for the Induction of CD8 T Cell Exhaustion. [[{&#8220;value&#8221;:&#8221;Miriam Kuhlmann, \nDaphne Del Carmen Kolland, \nGustavo Pereira de Almeida, \nChristian Hoffmann, \nMadlaina von Hoesslin, \nJacqueline Berner, \nChristine Wurmser, \nAnna Akulich, \nAnna M. Schulz, \nCarl\u2010Philipp Hackstein, \nCaspar Ohnmacht, \nDietmar Zehn&#8221;}]]\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[112,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-european-journal-of-immunology","category-publicaciones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74415\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inmuno.es\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}