In particular, DCs can transpresent IL-15 in complex Neratinib price with the IL-15Rα-chain to central memory T cells and IL-15 transpresented by macrophages can support both effector and memory CD8+ T cells [17]. In our study, about 40% of the transferred memory T cells are in close proximity to either an F4/80+ or a CD11c+ cell. Recent studies show that human BM memory T cells are in close contact with cells expressing IL-15 message [43]. With our system, we did not observe enrichment of IL-15-expressing cells in proximity to

the CD8+ memory T cells, as we found less than 2% of memory T cells in contact with IL-15+ cells. This might be due to the limited sensitivity of the IL-15 antibody stain, resulting in us only detecting cells with the highest IL-15 expression. It has been reported that adoptively transferred leukemic cells as well as DCs and B cells populate perivascular regions in cranial bones of mice [44, 45]. In contrast to those studies, we did not observe enrichment of the transferred memory T cells to sub-regions within the BM, rather they were found randomly scattered throughout the BM. A reason for this difference in results might be the different T-cell types analyzed and/or differences in cellular organization in long bones as compared to the cranium. We also detected other cell types located in close proximity to the transferred CD8+ memory T cells. The most abundant of these were the Gr1+ cells, whose

proximity to find more the CD8+ memory T cells was not statistically different than that of the VCAM-1+ stromal cells. Based on flow cytometry, the Gr1hi granulocytes do not express 4–1BBL,

whereas, 4–1BBL was detected on Gr1o MHC II+, CD11b+ F480+ cells in the BM of unimmunized mice (Supporting Information Fig. 6). We do not know if our microscopy is only detecting the abundant Gr1hi granulocyte population or also includes this 4–1BBL+ Gr1lo population. About 35% of the memory T cells were found near B220+ cells. However, B220+ cells from the BM do not express 4–1BBL (Supporting Information Fig. 6A) and moreover, B cells are not essential for CD8+ T-cell memory [46] making it unlikely that the B cells make nonredundant contributions to the support of CD8+ memory T cells. It is also possible that these tangencies (with VCAM-1+, Gr1+, or B220+ cells) are merely coincidental, as we observed memory Selleck Gefitinib T cells touching up to eight cells in one section. Additionally, the cells could also be competing for similar stromal cell factors as the CD8+ T cells. In conclusion, this study begins to define the cells that contribute to the maintenance of CD8+ memory T cells by 4–1BB and 4–1BBL. We demonstrate that 4–1BB on an αβ T-cell allows increased recall responses of CD8+ T cells. We further show that 4–1BBL on a radioresistant cell with lesser effects of 4–1BBL on a radiosensitive cell allows increased recovery of memory CD8+ T cells after parking in mice without antigen.