Browsing by Author "Rudd, Brian D."

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    Cutting Edge: Elevated Glycolytic Metabolism Limits the Formation of Memory CD8+ T Cells in Early Life
    (American Association of Immunologists, 2019-11-15) Tabilas, Cybelle; Wang, Jocelyn; Liu, Xiaojing; Locasale, Jason W.; Smith, Norah L.; Rudd, Brian D.; Pediatrics, School of Medicine
    Neonates often develop poor immunity against intracellular pathogens. Because CD8+ T cells are essential for eliminating infectious agents, it is crucial to understand why they behave differently in early life. Previous studies in mice have demonstrated that neonatal CD8+ T cells fail to form memory because of an intrinsic propensity to differentiate into short-lived effectors. However, the underlying mechanisms remain undefined. We now show that neonatal CD8+ T cells exhibit higher glycolytic activity than adult CD8+ T cells postinfection, which may be due to age-related differences in Lin28b expression. Importantly, when glycolysis is pharmacologically inhibited, the impaired formation of neonatal memory CD8+ T cells can be restored. Collectively, these data suggest that neonatal CD8+ T cells are inherently biased toward undergoing glycolytic metabolism postinfection, which compromises their ability to develop into memory CD8+ T cells in early life.