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. 2003 Dec;4(12):1191-8.
doi: 10.1038/ni1009. Epub 2003 Nov 16.

Selective expression of the interleukin 7 receptor identifies effector CD8 T cells that give rise to long-lived memory cells

Susan M Kaech  1 , Joyce T Tan, E John Wherry, Bogumila T Konieczny, Charles D Surh, Rafi Ahmed
Affiliations

Selective expression of the interleukin 7 receptor identifies effector CD8 T cells that give rise to long-lived memory cells

Susan M Kaech et al. Nat Immunol. 2003 Dec.

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.

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