Expression data in antigen-specific CD8 T cells in the absence of ATG7

Autophagy genes play an important role in the T cell activation and proliferation. We examined the role of ATG7 during the process of CD8 T cell memory formation. In the absence of ATG7, antigen-specific CD8 T cells failed to survive past the contraction phase and failed to give rise to memory cells. We used microarrays to examine the global programme of gene expression underlying changes introduced in the absence of the ATG7 gene and identified distinct classes genes varied their expression during this time-point. Mouse LCMV-specific CD8 T cells were isolated at day 8 post LCMV infection for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays. We sought to compare the gene expression profiles in wild-type cells and cells lacking the ATG7 gene during the peak of their expansion.