PERIPHERAL CLONAL DELETION OF ANTIVIRAL MEMORY CD8-CELLS( T)

Antiviral cytotoxic memory CD8+ T cells adoptively transferred to mice which are persistently infected with lymphocytic choriomeningitis vir us WE or DOCILE initially proliferated extensively; they either caused the death of the recipient or, alternatively, disappeared within a fe w days. Apparently, the complete and coordinated induction and stimula tion by widely distributed viral antigen caused these memory T cells t o die before virus had been eliminated from the host. Thus memory T ce lls are as susceptible to peripheral exhaustion/deletion as unprimed T cells. These results indicate possible limitations of exclusively CD8 + T cell-mediated adoptive immunotherapy against viral infections or t umors.