Figure 4.
Functional effects of different amounts of Bcl-6 and Blimp-1 expression. The amount of Bcl-6 and Blimp-1 expression is balanced differently in different lymphocytes at distinct differentiation stages. Lymphocytes with higher expression of Bcl-6 exhibit greater proliferative capacity but less secretory capacity. Lymphocytes with higher expression of Blimp-1 exhibit lower proliferative capacity and greater secretory capacity. Although exhausted CD8+ T cells have large amounts of Blimp-1 and lower proliferative capacity, they do not have more secreted effectors. TCM, central memory T cell; TEM, effector memory T cell.