IMMUNE CELL PROFILE
The Sheriff
About this cell
CD8 T Cell
- The Sheriff
The CD8 T cell is the immune system’s sheriff — it patrols the body looking for infected cells and eliminates them before they can spread the infection further. When a cell in your body gets infected by a virus like HIV, it displays warning signals on its surface. The CD8 T cell recognises these signals and moves in to destroy the infected cell.
Illustrations Credit: Dr Kiho Tanaka is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity.
Content Review Credit: Carles Araya is a peer navigator at Living Positive Victoria and a member of the Melbourne HIV Cure Consortium Community Advisory Board. Dr Hannah King and Dr Paula Cevaal are postdoctoral research fellows at the Peter Doherty Institute.
These are simplified summaries of what the cells do in our body. In fact, they do a lot more than what we have shown here, for example they also play crucial roles in controlling cancer. We hope through this graphical summary people feel more familiar with their own immune cells and this serves as a fun introduction to cell biology!
