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Updated: Nov 25, 2025

Transduction and Expansion of Primary T Cells in Nine Days with Maintenance of Central Memory Phenotype
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Transduction and Expansion of Primary T Cells in Nine Days with Maintenance of Central Memory Phenotype

Published on: March 18, 2020

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CD57+ Memory T Cells Proliferate In Vivo

Raya Ahmed1, Kelly L Miners2, Julio Lahoz-Beneytez3

  • 1Institute for Infection and Immunity, St. George's, University of London, London SW17 0RE, UK.

Cell Reports
|December 16, 2020
PubMed

Insights

Senescent memory T cells expressing CD57 are sustained by self-renewal, not just phenotypic transition. This finding suggests that immunological memory is intrinsically sustainable in aged, differentiated T cell populations.

Area of Science:

  • Immunology
  • Cell Biology
  • Aging Research

Background:

  • A central tenet in lymphocyte biology is that memory T cells expressing CD57 are replicatively senescent.
  • These CD57+ memory T cells accumulate with age and expand during persistent antigen stimulation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the origin of CD57+ memory T cells.
  • To determine whether CD57+ memory T cells arise from phenotypic transition or self-renewal through proliferation.

Main Methods:

  • In vivo deuterium labeling to track cell division.
  • Ex vivo analysis of telomere length and telomerase activity.
  • Intracellular Ki67 expression to assess cell proliferation.

Main Results:

  • Compelling evidence supports the self-renewal of CD57+ memory T cells via intracompartmental proliferation.
  • Mathematical modeling indicates self-renewal is the primary source of new CD57+ memory T cells.
  • These findings challenge the notion that CD57+ cells are exclusively terminally differentiated and non-proliferative.

Conclusions:

  • Immunological memory is intrinsically sustainable within highly differentiated T cell subsets expressing CD57.
  • The self-renewal capacity of CD57+ memory T cells contributes significantly to maintaining immune memory over time.

Keywords:
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