Journal
JOURNAL OF IMMUNOLOGY
Volume 179, Issue 2, Pages 928-938Publisher
AMER ASSOC IMMUNOLOGISTS
DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.179.2.928
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Funding
- NCI NIH HHS [R01-CA87869, R37-CA84198, T32 CA009151] Funding Source: Medline
- NIAID NIH HHS [T32 AI007290, R01-AI047458, 1F 32 AI 58521, R01-AI047457] Funding Source: Medline
- NICHD NIH HHS [R01-HD0445022] Funding Source: Medline
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The factors that regulate the rate of production of T cells by the thymus remain incompletely defined. To test whether generation of functional T cell receptors limits the rate of thymic T cell export, we made use of a line of mice, LN3 alpha beta, that have endogenously prerearranged TCR genes. The prerearranged TCR genes were expressed abnormally early in hemopoietic development, indicating that RAG-mediated recombination, rather than transcription factor expression, is the key determinant of the initiation of robust TCR transcription. Thymic T cell export rates were similar between wild-type (wt) and LN3 alpha beta mice, indicating that T cell maturation rates in these mice are determined by factors other than TCR gene rearrangement. In competitive bone marrow chimeras, however, LN3 alpha beta thymocytes were out-competed by wt cells and failed to develop beyond the double-negative 4 stage. Furthermore, wt progenitors transplanted intrathymically into LN3 alpha beta mice proliferated excessively, suggesting that increased proliferative signals in the LN3 alpha beta thymus compensate for faulty T cell development driven by early TCR expression.
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