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- Title
Selective expression of the interleukin 7 receptor identifies effector CD8 T cells that give rise to long-lived memory cells.
- Authors
Kaech, Susan M; Tan, Joyce T; Wherry, E John; Konieczny, Bogumila T; Surh, Charles D; Ahmed, Rafi
- Abstract
A major unanswered question is what distinguishes the majority of activated CD8 T cells that die after an acute viral infection from the small fraction (5-10%) that survive to become long-lived memory cells. In this study we show that increased expression of the interleukin 7 receptor alpha-chain (IL-7Ralpha) identifies the effector CD8 T cells that will differentiate into memory cells. IL-7R(hi) effector cells contained increased amounts of antiapoptotic molecules, and adoptive transfer of IL-7R(hi) and IL-7R(lo) effector cells showed that IL-7R(hi) cells preferentially gave rise to memory cells that could persist and confer protective immunity. Thus, selective expression of IL-7R identifies memory cell precursors, and this marker may be useful in predicting the number of memory T cells generated after infection or immunization.
- Publication
Nature immunology, 2003, Vol 4, Issue 12, p1191
- ISSN
1529-2908
- Publication type
Journal Article
- DOI
10.1038/ni1009