Stem-cell-like qualities of immune memory; CD4+ T cells join the party.
Similar to hematopoietic stem cells, memory lymphocytes self-renew, while their clonally expanded effector progeny differentiate to fight infection and tumors. Recently, Muranski et al. (2011) report in Immunity that a subset of Th17 effector cells function as memory cells and retain stem cell properties.
Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. cluckey@partners.org
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