| First Author | Rudd BD | Year | 2011 |
| Journal | Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A | Volume | 108 |
| Issue | 33 | Pages | 13694-9 |
| PubMed ID | 21813761 | Mgi Jnum | J:175601 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:5286756 | Doi | 10.1073/pnas.1107594108 |
| Citation | Rudd BD, et al. (2011) Nonrandom attrition of the naive CD8+ T-cell pool with aging governed by T-cell receptor:pMHC interactions. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 108(33):13694-9 |
| abstractText | Immunity against new infections declines in the last quartile of life, as do numbers of naive T cells. Peripheral maintenance of naive T cells over the lifespan is necessary because their production drastically declines by puberty, a result of thymic involution. We report that this maintenance is not random in advanced aging. As numbers and diversity of naive CD8(+) T cells declined with aging, surviving cells underwent faster rates of homeostatic proliferation, were selected for high T-cell receptor:pMHC avidity, and preferentially acquired 'memory-like' phenotype. These high-avidity precursors preferentially responded to infection and exhibited strong antimicrobial function. Thus, T-cell receptor avidity for self-pMHC provides a proofreading mechanism to maintain some of the fittest T cells in the otherwise crumbling naive repertoire, providing a degree of compensation for numerical and diversity defects in old T cells. |
