I am looking for markers for Actrivation-induced markers in the mouse. In the human, for CD4: it's CD25, CD107a and OX40, and for CD8, it's PDL-1 (Bowyer et al., Vaccine 2018).
In the mouse, CD44 and CD62L are frequently used. What markers could correspond to AIM in vaccinated mice?
You can use the same markers as in humans and include also CD69, CTLA-4 and some cytokines as TNFa, IL-1B, INFg, IL-10, IL-6, IL-4 ect ( optional).
Murine CD4 T Cells:
Proliferation: Ki-67, BrdU, CSFE
Correlates: CD44+CD62L- (non-naive) vs CD44-CD62L+ (naive); CD69; CD11a+CD49d+
Polarization Status (transcription factors): T-bet, GATA3, RORyt, FoxP3
Effector Cytokines: IFNgamma, IL-4, IL17A/F, IL-10 (recommend flow for IFNgamma + IL-17 and ELISAs for IL-4/10).
Cytotoxicity: Perforin, Granzyme B, CD107a (special protocol)
Murine CD8 T cells:
Proliferation: Ki-67, BrdU, CSFE, Tetramer frequencies
Correlates: CD44+CD62L-; CD11a+CD49d+:CD11a+CD8lo; CD69
Effector cytokines: IL-2, TNFa, IFNgamma
Cytotoxicity: Perforin, Granzyme B, CD107a, death of target cells
For ease (using flow cytometry) I would recommend looking at Ki-67, CD44, T-bet, and FoxP3 for CD4 T cells and Ki-67, CD44, IFNgamma, and Granzyme B in CD8 T cells. More convincing phenotypes would be Ki-67, IFNgamma, Granzyme B, IL-10 for CD4 T cells and tetramer frequency, IL-2, TNFa, IFNgamma, CD107a for CD8 T cells.
Parting notes: You can use what are typically considered exhaustion markers as surrogate activation markers (e.g., PD-1; PD-L1; CTLA-4) in early T cell activation as these can be expressed by cytolytic cells but don't necessarily require antigen-specific cells to elicit (e.g., chronic IFNgamma exposure) so I would not recommend this. CTLA-4 will also give you varying results depending if you do a surface stain vs an ICS. Recently activated CD8 T cells co-express IL-2, TNFa, and IFNgamma and lose them in that order as they become exhausted.
If you lack a model that can't use death of an antigen-expressing target as a readout then CD107a expression is a nice alternative. This marker requires a special protocol as you essentially have to stain exocytosed vesicles during the stimulation step. I've had good luck using a 5 hour stimulation of agonistic CD3 + CD28 antibodies with fluorescent CD107a antibody present in the media. I would add golgi inhibitors (I used brefeldin A + monensin) during the last 3 hours of stimulation and then proceeded with standard protocols for cellular staining after this. This will work with CD8 T cells and should work with CD4 T cells, although I have not tried it with the latter. I also don't know if you will get real CD107a staining if you elect to use alternative sources of T cell stimulation (e.g., PMA/ionomycin).
Good luck