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REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Immunological Memory
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1540045
Advances and challenges in identifying precursors of memory CD4 + T cells
Provisionally accepted- 1Shandong Province University Clinical Immunology Translational Medicine Laboratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Provincial Qianfoshan Hospital, jinan, China
- 2School of Clinical and Basic medicine, Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, China
- 3Institute of infection and immunity, Medical Science and Technology Innovation Center, Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, China
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Memory T (TM) cells play critical roles in protective immunity and immunopathology, and their generation and maintenance have attracted a lot of interests. In recent decades, informative investigations into CD8 + TM cell precursors have greatly enhanced our understanding of fate decision during CD8 + TM cell differentiation. Yet, much less is known about the generation of CD4 + TM cells and their precursors. In this review, we present advances in identifying precursors of CD4 + TM cells under Th1, Th2 and Th17 conditions, as well as current understanding of how intrinsic factors, extrinsic factors and positioning profiles contribute to determining fate choices of CD4 + T cells between effector and memory. However, the path toward a general theory of CD4 + TM cell generation has been hindered by technological limitations and diversity and plasticity of CD4 + T subsets at effector and memory phases. We thoroughly discuss the differences and similarities in differentiation of CD4 + TM cells under Th1, Th2, and Th17 conditions, and explore the prospects for identifying common precursors of specific CD4 + TM cells under various types of infections and exposures.
Keywords: CD4 + T memory cells, memory precursor, Fate decision, T memory subsets, Th1 Th2
Received: 05 Dec 2024; Accepted: 14 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Song and Tang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hua Tang, Shandong Province University Clinical Immunology Translational Medicine Laboratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Provincial Qianfoshan Hospital, jinan, China
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