Low-affinity CD8⁺ T cells provide interclonal help to high-affinity CD8⁺ T cells to augment alloimmunity.

ABSTRACT: Following solid organ transplantation, small precursor populations of polyclonal CD8⁺ T cells specific for any graft-expressed antigen preferentially expand their high-affinity clones. This phenomenon, termed "avidity maturation," results in a larger population of CD8⁺ T cells with increased sensitivity to alloantigen, posing a greater risk for graft rejection. Using a mouse model of minor-mismatched skin transplantation, coupled with the tracking of 2 skin graft-reactive CD8⁺ T cell receptor-transgenic tracer populations with high and low affinity for the same peptide-major histocompatibility complex, we explored the conventional paradigm that CD8⁺ T cell avidity maturation occurs through T cell receptor affinity-based competition for cognate an

SUBMITTER: Wang P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11144556 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature