FIGURE 2: Autophagy and fatty acid metabolism are important for memory CD8⁺ T cell formation.

During contraction, memory precursor cells must switch to the oxidation of fats to maintain viability. Extracellular glucose is used to fuel lipid synthesis from tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA) precursors. In this model, autophagy is then required to sequester neutral lipid stores in autophagosomes in order to deliver them to the lysosome for degradation. The resulting free fatty acids can then enter the mitochondria for fatty acid oxidation (FAO) and energy production.