Résumé
Thymic export of cells is believed to be restricted to mature T cells. Here we show that the thymus also exports fully committed T cell precursors that colonize primary lymphoid organs. These precursor cells exited the thymus before T cell receptor rearrangements and colonized lymphoid organs such as the thymus and the gut. Migration of the thymic T cell -committed precursors led to permanent colonization of the gut precursor compartment, improved the capacity of gut precursors to further differentiate into T cells and was sufficient for the generation of 'euthymic like' CD8αα+ intraepithelial lymphocytes. These data demonstrate a new function for the thymus in peripheral seeding with T cell precursors that become long lived after thymus export.
langue originale | Anglais |
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Pages (de - à) | 76-82 |
Nombre de pages | 7 |
journal | Nature Immunology |
Volume | 7 |
Numéro de publication | 1 |
Les DOIs | |
état | Publié - 1 janv. 2006 |