Absence of Batf3 results in reduced liver pathology in mice infected with Schistosoma japonicum

Lin Chen, Donghui Zhang, Wenyue Zhang, Yuxiao Zhu, Min Hou, Bingya Yang, Zhipeng Xu, Minjun Ji, Guanling Wu

The involvement of CD8(+)T cells in schistosomiasis is being increasingly appreciated, but the underlying mechanism is not well defined. In this study, we showed that the absence of Batf3 alleviated liver damage in Batf3 (-/-) mice infected with S. japonicum. We found alleviated liver granulomatous inflammation in Batf3 (-/-) mice with schistosomiasis japonica could not be attributed to the difference in schistosome egg or worm burden. The stronger Tc1 cell responses observed in Batf3 (-/-) mice suggested that the deletion of Batf3 resulted in more activation of CD8(+)T cells unexpectedly during the natural infection of schistosomes. We detected a small amount of CD8α(+) DCs in the spleen of Batf3 (-/-) mice at 9w post-infection. This small amount of newly generated CD8α(+) DCs might contribute to enhanced activation of CD8(+)T cells via cross-presentation and activation which then attenuate hepatic pathological damage found in Batf3 (-/-) mice. Our study provides evidence that Batf3 is associated with the immunoregulation of the liver granuloma formation, which may confer a new options for schistosomiasis treatment.