Immediate Cytotoxicity But Not Degranulation Distinguishes Effector and Memory Subsets of CD8+ T Cells
METADATA ONLY
Loading...
Author / Producer
Date
2004-03
Publication Type
Journal Article
ETH Bibliography
yes
Citations
Altmetric
METADATA ONLY
Data
Rights / License
Abstract
CD8+ T cells play a central role in the resolution and containment of viral infections. A key effector function of CD8+ T cells is their cytolytic activity toward infected cells. Here, we studied the regulation of cytolytic activity in naive, effector, and central versus effector memory CD8+ T cells specific for the same glycoprotein-derived epitope of lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus. Our results show that the kinetics of degranulation, assessed by a novel flow cytometric based assay, were identical in effector and both subsets of memory CD8+ T cells, but absent in naive CD8+ T cells. However, immediate cytolytic activity was most pronounced in effector T cells, low in effector memory T cells, and absent in central memory T cells, correlating with the respective levels of cytolytic effector molecules present in lytic granules. These results indicate that an inherent program of degranulation is a feature of antigen-experienced cells as opposed to naive CD8+ T cells and that the ability of CD8+ T cells to induce target cell apoptosis/death is dependent on granule protein content rather than on the act of degranulation itself. Furthermore, these results provide a potential mechanism by which central memory CD8+ T cell–mediated death of antigen-presenting cells within the lymph node is avoided.
Permanent link
Publication status
published
External links
Editor
Book title
Journal / series
Volume
199 (7)
Pages / Article No.
925 - 936
Publisher
Rockefeller University Press
Event
Edition / version
Methods
Software
Geographic location
Date collected
Date created
Subject
Organisational unit
03625 - Oxenius, Annette / Oxenius, Annette
Notes
Published 29 March 2004.