cytotoxic T-cell

Cytotoxic T cells (killer T cells) are a sub-group of T cells whose role is to identify the body's own cells that have become infected and kill them directly. Killer T cells identify such cells by testing protein fragments presented by those cells through a letterbox shaped protein, called MHC I.

Cytotoxic T-cell is an alternative name for Killer or CD8+ T-cell.

See Killer T-cells