Fig. 1

Phenotype determination of CD8⁺ memory T cell subsets in tumor-draining lymph nodes of patients with breast cancer. After selecting CD8⁺ positive cells in the lymphocyte gate (a), the phenotype of different subsets was defined based on the expression of CCR7, CD45RO and CD95. CD95 expressing CCR7⁺CD45RO⁺CD8⁺ lymphocytes were considered as TCM cells in both CD45RO^hi and CD45RO^low populations (c, g and d, h), whereas lymphocytes with a CCR7⁻CD45RO⁺CD95⁺CD8⁺ phenotype were considered as TEM cells (e, i) and CCR7⁺CD45RO⁻ cells that did not express CD95 were considered as naive cells (f, j). A subgroup of lymphocytes with naive phenotype (CCR7⁺CD45RO⁻) but positive for CD95 was coined as TSCM cells (f, j). TSCM: T memory stem; TCM: T central memory; TEM: T effector memory cells; TN: T naive