The Chemokine Receptor CXCR3 Promotes CD8+ T Cell Accumulation in Uninfected Salivary Glands but Is Not Necessary after Murine Cytomegalovirus Infection

Recent work indicates that salivary glands are able to constitutively recruit CD8(+) T cells and retain them as tissue-resident memory T cells, independently of local infection, inflammation, or Ag. To understand the mechanisms supporting T cell recruitment to the salivary gland, we compared T cell migration to the salivary gland in mice that were infected or not with murine CMV (MCMV), a herpesvirus that infects the salivary gland and promotes the accumulation of salivary gland tissue-resident memory T cells. We found that acute MCMV infection increased rapid T cell recruitment to the salivary gland but that equal numbers of activated CD8(+) T cells eventually accumulated in infected and uninfected glands. T cell recruitment to uninfected salivary glands depended on chemokines and the integrin alpha(4). Several chemokines were expressed in the salivary glands of infected and uninfected mice, and many of these could promote the migration of MCMV-specific T cells in vitro. MCMV infection increased the expression of chemokines that interact with the receptors CXCR3 and CCR5, but neither receptor was needed for T cell recruitment to the salivary gland during MCMV infection. Unexpectedly, however, the chemokine receptor CXCR3 was critical for T cell accumulation in uninfected salivary glands. Together, these data suggest that CXCR3 and the integrin alpha(4) mediate T cell recruitment to uninfected salivary glands but that redundant mechanisms mediate T cell recruitment after MCMV infection.