Vaccination of calves with Bacille Calmette Guerin increased the frequency but did not affect aggregation or clustering of natural killer cells in draining lymph nodes

Introduction Natural killer (NK) cells are central to innate immune responses but they also influence adaptive immunity. Evidence suggests that NK cells are involved in protective immune responses induced by the Bacille Calmette Guerin (BCG) vaccine. In cattle, vaccination with BCG provides significant protection against infection with Mycobacterium bovis , the causative agent of bovine tuberculosis (bTB). Bovine NK cells were previously shown to traffic from BCG vaccination sites in afferent lymph, and to be activated reciprocally through interactions with dendritic cells (DC) to drive high-level interferon gamma secretion. To further define roles for bovine NK cells in the induction of BCG vaccine-mediated immunity, we examined alterations in their frequency, location, and aggregation in lymph nodes (LN) draining immunization sites. Materials and methods Calves were either not vaccinated, vaccinated with BCG once, or were re-vaccinated. The frequency and localization of NK cells in draining LN was examined by immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence, and statistical analyses of imaging outputs were performed. Results While increased numbers of NK cells were found in BCG-draining LN, there were no significant alterations in location, nor the clustering or aggregation of NK cells. Re-vaccination with BCG had little impact on NK cell numbers or location. Conclusion BCG vaccination induced changes in NK cell frequency in bovine LN. Further studies of NK cell function and co-localization with subsets of DC and T cells will be important to define the roles of these cells in the induction of protective immunity in bTB.