Sensitive and viable identification of antigen-specific CD8+ T cells by a flow cytometric assay for degranulation

MR Betts, JM Brenchley, DA Price, SC De Rosa… - Journal of …, 2003 - Elsevier
Flow cytometric detection of antigen-specific CD8+ T cells has previously been limited to
MHC-class I tetramer staining or intracellular cytokine production, neither of which measure
the cytolytic potential of these cells. Here we present a novel technique to enumerate
antigen-specific CD8+ T cells using a marker expressed on the cell surface following
activation induced degranulation, a necessary precursor of cytolysis. This assay measures
the exposure of CD107a and b, present in the membrane of cytotoxic granules, onto the cell …