| First Author | Utzschneider DT | Year | 2013 |
| Journal | Nat Immunol | Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 6 | Pages | 603-10 |
| PubMed ID | 23644506 | Mgi Jnum | J:197317 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:5492173 | Doi | 10.1038/ni.2606 |
| Citation | Utzschneider DT, et al. (2013) T cells maintain an exhausted phenotype after antigen withdrawal and population reexpansion. Nat Immunol 14(6):603-10 |
| abstractText | During chronic infection, pathogen-specific CD8(+) T cells upregulate expression of molecules such as the inhibitory surface receptor PD-1, have diminished cytokine production and are thought to undergo terminal differentiation into exhausted cells. Here we found that T cells with memory-like properties were generated during chronic infection. After transfer into naive mice, these cells robustly proliferated and controlled a viral infection. The reexpanded T cell populations continued to have the exhausted phenotype they acquired during the chronic infection. Thus, the cells underwent a form of differentiation that was stably transmitted to daughter cells. We therefore propose that during persistent infection, effector T cells stably differentiate into a state that is optimized to limit viral replication without causing overwhelming immunological pathology. |
