Evolution of the CD8 T-cell repertoire during infections

M Y Lin1, L K Selin, R M Welsh

  • 1The Department of Pathology and Program in Immunology and Virology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts 01655, USA.

Microbes and Infection
|September 1, 2000
PubMed

CD8 T cells exist in a dynamic network whose repertoire remains static in the absence of infection but changes in the presence of foreign antigens. Individuals each have unique T-cell repertoires that continually evolve in the presence of antigen and of cross-reactive heterologous antigens, and homeostatic forces drive deletions in T-cell memory pools to accommodate the entry of new memory cells into a finite immune system.

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