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Memory lanes

Nature Immunology volume 4, pages 212–213 (2003)Cite this article

The lineage relationships of TEM and TCM and their ability to confer protective immunity are not well understood. New data suggest TEM are poorer mediators of protective immunity and convert to TCM over time.

Naive CD8+ T cells traffic through lymphoid organs until they encounter the correct pathogen-derived antigen. A brief encounter is sufficient to stimulate a program of extensive division and differentiation2,3,4, generating highly activated effector CD8+ T cells that migrate to tissues and defend against infection. Expansion is followed by rapid contraction, in which approximately 90–95% of the effector cells are eliminated by a program that is minimally influenced by the duration of infection or antigen display5. Remarkably, the remaining pathogen-specific CD8+ T cells are maintained, in some cases for life, by a dynamic process involving cytokine-driven homeostatic proliferation6.

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Figure 1: Ag-specific CD8+ T cell response after acute infection.

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Author information

Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, University of Iowa, 3-512 Bowen Science Building, 51 Newton Road, Iowa City, 52242, IA, USA

    Vladimir P. Badovinac & John T. Harty

  2. Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Immunology, University of Iowa, 3-512 Bowen Science Building, 51 Newton Road, Iowa City, 52242, IA, USA

    John T. Harty

Authors
  1. Vladimir P. Badovinac
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  2. John T. Harty
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Correspondence to John T. Harty.

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Badovinac, V., Harty, J. Memory lanes. Nat Immunol 4, 212–213 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/ni0303-212

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