Fig. 2.

Characteristics of CD103 +  CTA-specific CTLs. Patient circulation-derived CTA-specific CD103+ CTLs exhibit self-production of TGF-β1 in its active form, which is potentially recognized by self-TGFR, mediating the self-maintenance of CD103 expression. This unique T-cell population also has elevated glucose consumption over time, and mediates faster recognition and killing of individual cancer cells. The presence and interaction between CD103 and its ligand E-cadherin on cancer cells would support the faster recognition. However, the presence or absence of PD-1 and its interaction with PD-L1 on cancer cells might influence the antitumor T-cell responses