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TY - JOUR AU - Brehm, Michael A. AU - Pinto, Amelia K. AU - Daniels, Keith A. AU - Schneck, Jonathan P. AU - Welsh, Raymond M. AU - Selin, Liisa K. PY - 2002 DA - 2002/07/01 TI - T cell immunodominance and maintenance of memory regulated by unexpectedly cross-reactive pathogens JO - Nature Immunology SP - 627 EP - 634 VL - 3 IS - 7 AB - We show here that T cell cross-reactivity between heterologous viruses influences the immunodominance of virus-specific CD8+ T cells by two mechanisms. First, T cells specific for cross-reactive epitopes dominate acute responses to viral infections; second, within the memory pool, T cells specific for cross-reactive epitopes are maintained while those specific for non-cross-reactive epitopes are selectively lost. These findings suggest an immunological paradigm in which viral infections shape the available T cell repertoire, causing alterations in the hierarchies of both the primary and memory CD8+ T cell responses elicited by subsequent viral infections. Thus, immunodominance is a function of the host's previous exposure to unrelated pathogens, and this may have an impact on protective immunity and immunopathology. SN - 1529-2916 UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/ni806 DO - 10.1038/ni806 ID - Brehm2002 ER -