Fig. 3: Stem-like CD8⁺ T cell populations are more effective than their counterparts at controlling metastasis.

a Experimental design. b Representative bioluminescent image of pre-adoptive and post-adoptive C57BL/6 J mice receiving Ly108⁺CX3CR1^-, Ly108⁺CX3CR1⁺, Ly108^-CX3CR1⁺, Ly108^-CX3CR1^- cells transfer or without transfer (n = 5 mice/group). c Quantification of (b). d Survival curve of tumor-bearing mice for indicated groups described in (b). Log-rank test for survival comparison. e Flow cytometry depicted the phenotype of adoptively transferred cells before and 14 days after transfer. All subsets shown were gated on CD8⁺PD1⁺CD44⁺CD45.2⁺CD45.1^- cells. f Representative bioluminescent image of TβRI-hWT and TβRI-hKO mice inoculated with TGFβ1^OE, TGFβ1^KD, or TGFβ1^CTL PAN02-Luc cells (n = 6 mice/group). g Quantification of (f). Data are presented as the mean ± SD, and were analyzed with one-way (g) or two-way (c) ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparison test. Consistent results were observed across three biological replicates in (b–g). Source data are provided as a Source Data file.