T-cells play a central role in cell-mediated immunity. While activation of T-cells is major histocompatibility-restricted, the Toll-like receptors (TLRs)- a family of proteins that recognize conserved molecular patterns present on the pathogens-are not well-studied for their expression and function in T-cells. As any association of TLR expression profiles with an effector T-cell subset is unknown, we analyze BALB/c mice-derived CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T-cells’ TLR expression profiles. We report: CD4⁺t-bet⁺ T-cells are frequent in TLR2^LowTLR3^HighTLR4^Low subpopulation, CD4⁺GATA3⁺ T-cells are frequent within the cells with intermediate expression of TLR2, TLR3, TLR4 and TLR11, CD4⁺FoxP3⁺ T-cells in TLR2^HighTLR3^High cells whereas CD4⁺RORγt ⁺ T-cells are frequent in TLR2^LowTLR3^LowTLR4^LowTLR11^Low cells. CD4⁺ effector T-cell subsets may therefore show association with TLRs- TLR3, in particular-expression. In Leishmania donovani infection in BALB/c mice, TLR3 expression on both CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T-cells is reduced. Poly-I:C, a TLR3 ligand, do not have any distinctive effects on the CD4⁺ effector T-cell subsets. These data suggest that TLRs on T-cells may not function as a primary receptor that controls T-cell function but their distinctive expression profiles on different T-cell subsets suggest plausible immunomodulatory role.

T 细胞在细胞介导的免疫中发挥着核心作用。虽然 T 细胞的激活主要受到组织相容性的限制，但 Toll 样受体 (TLR)——识别病原体上存在的保守分子模式的蛋白质家族——尚未对其在 T 细胞中的表达和功能进行充分研究。由于 TLR 表达谱与效应 T 细胞亚群的任何关联尚不清楚，我们分析了 BALB/c 小鼠来源的 CD4 ⁺和 CD8 ⁺ T 细胞的 TLR 表达谱。我们报告：CD4 ⁺ t-bet ⁺ T 细胞常见于 TLR2 ^Low TLR3 ^High TLR4 ^Low亚群，CD4 ⁺ GATA3 ⁺ T 细胞常见于 TLR2、TLR3、TLR4 和 TLR11 中等表达的细胞内，CD4 ⁺ FoxP3 ⁺ T 细胞存在于 TLR2 ^High TLR3 ^High细胞中，而 CD4 ⁺ RORγt  ⁺  T 细胞常见于 TLR2 ^Low TLR3 ^Low TLR4 ^Low TLR11 ^Low细胞中。因此， CD4 ⁺效应T细胞亚群可能与TLRs-TLR3，特别是表达相关。BALB/c 小鼠感染杜氏利什曼原虫后，CD4 ⁺和 CD8 ⁺ T 细胞上的 TLR3 表达均降低。^{Poly-I:C 是一种 TLR3 配体，对 CD4 +}效应 T 细胞亚群没有任何独特影响。这些数据表明，T 细胞上的 TLR 可能无法作为控制 T 细胞功能的主要受体，但它们在不同 T 细胞亚群上的独特表达谱表明其可能具有免疫调节作用。