| First Author | Xu X | Year | 2014 |
| Journal | Nat Immunol | Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 12 | Pages | 1152-61 |
| PubMed ID | 25362489 | Mgi Jnum | J:260630 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:6142619 | Doi | 10.1038/ni.3025 |
| Citation | Xu X, et al. (2014) Autophagy is essential for effector CD8(+) T cell survival and memory formation. Nat Immunol 15(12):1152-61 |
| abstractText | The importance of autophagy in the generation of memory CD8(+) T cells in vivo is not well defined. We report here that autophagy was dynamically regulated in virus-specific CD8(+) T cells during acute infection of mice with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus. In contrast to the current paradigm, autophagy decreased in activated proliferating effector CD8(+) T cells and was then upregulated when the cells stopped dividing just before the contraction phase. Consistent with those findings, deletion of the gene encoding either of the autophagy-related molecules Atg5 or Atg7 had little to no effect on the proliferation and function of effector cells, but these autophagy-deficient effector cells had survival defects that resulted in compromised formation of memory T cells. Our studies define when autophagy is needed during effector and memory differentiation and warrant reexamination of the relationship between T cell activation and autophagy. |
