Nonmalignant clonal expansions of memory CD8+ T cells that arise with age vary in their capacity to mount recall responses to infection.

ABSTRACT: Immune responsiveness declines with age in part due to the development of CD8(+) T cell clonal expansions (TCEs) that can dominate the peripheral T cell pool. Although some TCEs arise due to persistent Ag stimulation from chronic infections, others arise in the apparent absence of chronic infection. We have recently shown that this latter class of TCEs can arise over time from the memory CD8(+) T cell pool established by an acute viral infection. Unlike TCEs driven by chronic infections, these age-related TCEs do not display the phenotypic and in vitro functional characteristics of exhausted cells. However, the rate at which these age-related TCEs develop from the memory CD8(+) T cell pool, as well as their ability to mount a recall response to secondary pathogen challenge in vivo, is not

SUBMITTER: Kohlmeier JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2933333 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature