Lymphatic endothelial cells prime naive CD8⁺ T cells into memory cells under steady-state conditions.

ABSTRACT: Lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs) chemoattract naïve T cells and promote their survival in the lymph nodes, and can cross-present antigens to naïve CD8⁺ T cells to drive their proliferation despite lacking key costimulatory molecules. However, the functional consequence of LEC priming of CD8⁺ T cells is unknown. Here, we show that while many proliferating LEC-educated T cells enter early apoptosis, the remainders comprise a long-lived memory subset, with transcriptional, metabolic, and phenotypic features of central memory and stem cell-like memory T cells. In vivo, these memory cells preferentially home to lymph nodes and display rapid proliferation and effector differentiation following memory recall, and can protect mice against a subsequent bacterial infection. T

SUBMITTER: Vokali E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6985113 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature