Pd-1 High and Intermediate CD8+ T cells

During acute viral infections, naïve CD8+ T cells differentiate into effector CD8+ T cells and, after viral control, into memory CD8+ T cells. Memory CD8+ T cells are highly functional, proliferate rapidly upon reinfection and persist long-term without antigen. In contrast, during chronic infections, CD8+ T cells become “exhausted” and have poor effector function, express multiple inhibitory receptors, possess low proliferative capacity, and cannot persist without antigen. Exhuasted CD8+ T cells can be further segregated by their expression of the inhibitory cell surface receptor PD-1. We performed transcriptional profiling on both PD-1 High and PD-1 Intermediate H2-Db GP33-specific CD8+ T cells. H2-Db GP33-specific CD8+ T cells were sorted from C57BL/6 mice 30 days p.i. with LCMV clone 13. These cells were then segregated by their expression of the inhibitory cell surface receptor PD-1 into PD-1 High and PD-1 Intermediate subpopulations. We performed transcriptional profiling on these subpopulations.