title: Cutting Edge: Enhanced Clonal Burst Size Corrects an Otherwise Defective Memory Response by CD8+ Recent Thymic Emigrants.
abstract: The youngest peripheral T cells (recent thymic emigrants [RTEs]) are functionally distinct from naive T cells that have completed postthymic maturation. We assessed the RTE memory response and found that RTEs produced less granzyme B than their mature counterparts during infection but proliferated more and, therefore, generated equivalent target killing in vivo. Postinfection, RTE numbers contracted less dramatically than those of mature T cells, but RTEs were delayed in their transition to central memory, displaying impaired expression of CD62L, IL-2, Eomesodermin, and CXCR4, which resulted in impaired bone marrow localization. RTE-derived and mature memory cells expanded equivalently during rechallenge, indicating that the robust proliferative capacity of RTEs was maintained independently of central memory phenotype. Thus, the diminished effector function and delayed central memory differentiation of RTE-derived memory cells are counterbalanced by their increased proliferative capacity, driving the efficacy of the RTE response to that of mature T cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98109.
authors.forename: Katherine A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Deets
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98109.
authors.forename: Amy M
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6032-8559
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Berkley
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98109.
authors.forename: Tessa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bergsbaken
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98109 pfink@uw.edu.
authors.forename: Pamela J
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7559-5948
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Fink
mesh_terms: D019264:Adoptive Transfer; D000818:Animals; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology* / Q000276:immunology*; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000276:immunology; D002469:Cell Separation; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D007156:Immunologic Memory / Q000276:immunology*; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology