“…For simplicity, the Zeb2 flox/flox ; GzmB-cre + mice will be referred to as Zeb2 −/− mice and Zeb2 flox/flox ; GzmB-cre − or Zeb +/+ ; GzmB-cre + littermate controls will be referred to as WT mice. It was important to use a conditional knock-out strategy because Zeb2 −/− mice show embryonic lethality and Zeb2 is expressed in many cell types, including hematopoietic stem cells, NK cells, monocytes, and mast cells (Tylzanowski et al, 2003;van Grunsven et al, 2006;Goossens et al, 2011;Barbu et al, 2012;Best et al, 2013). Zeb2 was efficiently deleted in ∼85-90% of the polyclonal CD44 hi CD8 + T cells using this system (unpublished data).…”