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Recruitment of Antigen-Specific CD8⁺ T Cells in Response to Infection Is Markedly Efficient

The magnitude of antigen-specific CD8⁺ T cell responses is not fixed but correlates with the severity of infection. Although by definition T cell response size is the product of both the capacity to recruit naïve T cells (clonal selection) and their subsequent proliferation (clonal expansion), it re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2009-09, Vol.325 (5945), p.1265-1269
Main Authors: van Heijst, Jeroen W.J, Gerlach, Carmen, Swart, Erwin, Sie, Daoud, Nunes-Alves, Cláudio, Kerkhoven, Ron M, Arens, Ramon, Correia-Neves, Margarida, Schepers, Koen, Schumacher, Ton N.M
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:The magnitude of antigen-specific CD8⁺ T cell responses is not fixed but correlates with the severity of infection. Although by definition T cell response size is the product of both the capacity to recruit naïve T cells (clonal selection) and their subsequent proliferation (clonal expansion), it remains undefined how these two factors regulate antigen-specific T cell responses. We determined the relative contribution of recruitment and expansion by labeling naïve T cells with unique genetic tags and transferring them into mice. Under disparate infection conditions with different pathogens and doses, recruitment of antigen-specific T cells was near constant and close to complete. Thus, naïve T cell recruitment is highly efficient, and the magnitude of antigen-specific CD8⁺ T cell responses is primarily controlled by clonal expansion.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1175455