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Updated: Aug 18, 2026

High-throughput Quantitative Real-time RT-PCR Assay for Determining Expression Profiles of Types I and III Interferon Subtypes
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Published on: March 24, 2015

Type I IFNs provide a third signal to CD8 T cells to stimulate clonal expansion and differentiation

Julie M Curtsinger1, Javier O Valenzuela, Pujya Agarwal

  • 1Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology, Center for Immunology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.

Journal of Immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950)
|April 9, 2005
PubMed

In this study, we show that IFN-alpha beta can have a direct role in linking innate and adaptive responses by providing the "third signal" needed by naive CD8 T cells responding to Ag and costimulatory ligands. Stimulation of CD8 T cells in the absence of a third signal leads to proliferation, but clonal expansion is limited by poor survival and effector functions do not develop. We show that IFN-alpha beta can provide the third signal directly to CD8 T cells via a STAT4-dependent pathway to stimulate survival, development of cytolytic function, and production of IFN-gamma. Provision of the third signal by either IFN-alpha beta or IL-12 results in regulation of the expression of a number of genes, including several that encode proteins critical for effector function.

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