Unique properties of tissue-resident memory T cells in the lungs: implications for COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases

Tissue-resident memory T (T-RM) cells were originally identified as a tissue-sequestered population of memory T cells that show lifelong persistence in non-lymphoid organs. That definition has slowly evolved with the documentation of T-RM cells having variable terms of tissue residency combined with a capacity to return to the wider circulation. Nonetheless, reductionist experiments have identified an archetypical population of T-RM cells showing intrinsic permanent residency in a wide range of non-lymphoid organs, with one notable exception: the lungs. Despite the fact that memory T cells generated during a respiratory infection are maintained in the circulation, local T-RM cell numbers in the lung decline concomitantly with a decay in T cell-mediated protection. This Perspective describes the mechanisms that underpin long-term T cell lodgement in non-lymphoid tissues and explains why residency is transient for select T-RM cell subsets. In doing so, it highlights the unusual nature of memory T cell egress from the lungs and speculates on the broader disease implications of this process, especially during infection with SARS-CoV-2.