Antigen persistence is required throughout the expansion phase of a CD4⁺ T cell response

For CD8⁺ T cells, a relatively short antigen pulse seems sufficient for antigen-presenting cells to drive clonal expansion and differentiation. It is unknown whether the requirement for antigen is similarly ephemeral for CD4⁺ T cells. To study the dependence of a CD4⁺ T cell response on antigen persistence in a quantitatively and temporally controlled manner in vivo, we engineered a mouse line expressing a major histocompatibility complex class II–restricted epitope in dendritic cells under the control of a tetracycline-inducible promoter. Experiments tracking the proliferation of CD4⁺ T cells exposed to their cognate antigen in various amounts for different time periods revealed that the division of such cells was contingent on the presence of antigen throughout their expansion phase, even in the presence of an inflammatory stimulus. This previously unrecognized feature of a CD4⁺ T cell response contrasts with the proliferative behavior of CD8⁺ T cells that has been documented, and it implies that the two T cell subsets might require different strategies for efficient vaccination.