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Heating up T cell activation

Nature Reviews Immunology volume 12, page 7 (2012)Cite this article

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Infections are often accompanied by fever. But what effect does this increase in temperature have on immune cell activation? This study found that incubation of naive CD8+ T cells at 39.5°C prior to antigen-specific activation resulted in enhanced differentiation of these cells into effector CD8+ T cells compared with cells incubated at 33°C or 37°C. Furthermore, enhanced naive CD8+ T cell differentiation was observed in mice following whole-body hyperthermia. But, the rate of T cell proliferation was not affected. However, clustering of GM1+ cholesterol-dependent microdomains on CD8+ T cells was increased at 39.5°C both in vitro and in vivo, as was the rate of T cell–antigen-presenting cell (APC) conjugate formation. So, physiologically relevant increases in temperature enhance the antigen-specific differentiation of effector CD8+ T cells by increasing T cell–APC conjugation.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Mace, T. A. et al. Differentiation of CD8+ T cells into effector cells is enhanced by physiological range hyperthermia. J. Leukoc. Biol. 90, 951–962 (2011)Article

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  1. Maria Papatriantafyllou
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Papatriantafyllou, M. Heating up T cell activation. Nat Rev Immunol 12, 7 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nri3146

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