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Updated: Jun 21, 2026

Accessing Early Differentiation of Virus-Specific Follicular Helper CD4+ T Cell in Acute LCMV-Infected Mice
Published on: April 26, 2024
Transcriptional repressor Blimp-1 promotes CD8(+) T cell terminal differentiation and represses the acquisition of
Rachel L Rutishauser1, Gislâine A Martins, Sergey Kalachikov
1Department of Immunobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
Abstract:
During acute infections, a small population of effector CD8(+) T cells evades terminal differentiation and survives as long-lived memory T cells. We demonstrate that the transcriptional repressor Blimp-1 enhanced the formation of terminally differentiated CD8(+) T cells during lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) infection, and Blimp-1 deficiency promoted the acquisition of memory cell properties by effector cells. Blimp-1 expression was preferentially increased in terminally differentiated effector and "effector memory" (Tem) CD8(+) T cells, and gradually decayed after infection as central memory (Tcm) cells developed. Blimp-1-deficient effector CD8(+) T cells showed some reduction in effector molecule expression, but primarily developed into memory precursor cells that survived better and more rapidly acquired several Tcm cell attributes, including CD62L and IL-2 expression and enhanced proliferative responses. These results reveal a critical role for Blimp-1 in controlling terminal differentiation and suppressing memory cell developmental potential in effector CD8(+) T cells during viral infection.
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