JEDI T-cells enable targeted cell depletion and investigation of T-cell interactions with virtually any cell population

There are numerous cell types with scarcely understood functions, and whose interactions with the immune system are not well characterized. To facilitate their study, we generated a mouse bearing enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP)-specific CD8+ T-cells. Transfer of the T-cells into EGFP reporter animals killed GFP-expressing cells, allowing selective depletion of desired cell types, or interrogation of T-cell interactions with specific populations. Using this system, we eliminate HCN4+ GFP-expressing cells in the heart and elicit their importance in cardiac function. We also show that naïve T-cells are recruited into the mouse brain by antigen-expressing microglia, providing evidence of an immune surveillance pathway in the central nervous system. The just EGFP death-inducing (JEDI) T-cells enable visualization of a T-cell antigen. They also make it possible to utilize hundreds of GFP-expressing mice, tumors, and pathogens, to study T-cell interactions with virtually any cell type, to model disease states, or to determine the functions of poorly characterized cell populations.